Abhi, a Karachi-based startup, that gives employees salary advances based on accrued wages, has raised $2 million for their seed round.
The funding round, led by VEF, the emerging market fintech investor, and Sarmayacar, the local lead, additionally included a number of worldwide and local investors including Village Global, i2i Ventures, and Zayn Capital. That is Village Global’s first FinTech investment in Pakistan, according to a press statement issued by Abhi.
In Pakistan, many employees stay paycheck to paycheck, and by the end of the month, most have exhausted their salaries on bill payments, household bills and emergencies. Abhi, co-founded by Omair Ansari and Ali Ladhubhai, plans to transform the way individuals spend their money, aiming to become the primary and largest financial wellness platform in Pakistan.
Co-founder Ansari, who previously advised and invested in fintech options in emerging & frontier markets, noted, “We believe financial wellness and access to credit are basic human rights, which we goal to bring to all our customers. Our goal is to digitise consumer credit, address pain points in the manual payments process and be there when consumers need us most. Your wage is your right, and we would like you to have access to it abhi (right now).”
