2022 has been a year of growth, impact and acceleration. Despite the global recession weighing heavy across all business sectors and industries, the Pakistani entrepreneurial ecosystem has continued persevering in its quest for disruption.
As the year comes to an end, we take a look back at 2022 and the brilliant resilience of the startup ecosystem.
Kicking the year off with a bang, Daftarkhwan raised seed funding from EMPG, a classifieds regional unicorn company that operates 10 brands across 16 countries. To keep up with the fast-growth of the ecosystem, Daftarkhwan capitalized on this investment by rapidly expanding- growing to an incredible 170,000+ square feet across 3 cities with a 3000+ member capacity, initiating 3 new sites with 4 more in development. Daftarkhwan has grown exponentially not just in scale but also in numbers, with its own team growing from 95 to 150+ skilled individuals.
In Lahore, Daftarkhwan launched Daftarkhwan | Fairways, a combination of two sites located in Lahore’s sought after DHA Raya, Phase 6, designed and custom made exclusively for established enterprises like Jugnu, Ingredion and Giraffe. With Fairways, Daftarkhwan now has 5 expansive sites in all of Lahore’s major locales.
Acting upon our ambition to expand in the North Region, Daftarkhwan collaborated with Aviation City Pakistan Ltd. for a 450+ member capacity coworking space, Daftarkhwan | Alpha. Situated in Rawalpindi, in the National Aerospace Science and Technology Park (NASTP), a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) led initiative, Alpha brings together a vibrant ecosystem of innovators. Daftarkhwan’s signature coworking experience and diverse supercommunity, combined with privileged access to state of the art incubators, laboratories and R&D centers provides members with an unique environment, primed for active disruption.
With its agile infrastructure and services, Daftarkhwan empowers its supercommunity to take the lead by driving impact. Despite the global economic crisis and the market slowdown, our supercommunity prospered, raising significant investment. Companies like Out-Class, Jugnu, Sadapay, PaymobDealCart and Bazaar managed to raise an impressive total of 158+ million dollars in pre-seed, Series A and Series B.
Seeking to enrich a community of entrepreneurs, Daftarkhwan hosted multiple networking events like the Google Meet and Greet, Paklaunch and VC meetups that generated more opportunities for the startup ecosystem, while collaborating on major events like Glam Fest 2022 and ITCN Asia Tech Fest 2022. By hosting events such as P@SHA Elections, Invest2Innovate’s accelerator and their consulting projects like WeRaise, a World Bank Group program that aims to move the needle on the number of deals closed by women CEOs of Pakistan Daftarkhwan takes the lead in facilitating the development of the startup ecosystem. Just this August Daftarkhwan helped bring a conference like 92+ Disrupt- an initiative led by Katalyst Labs to bridge the gap between the local and global startups- to Islamabad for the first time ever.
Daftarkhwan has actively diversified its sites to enable inclusion and accessibility across all fields and social groups, welcoming individuals regardless of their gender, race, religion, ethnicity. This year we launched an on-site playroom, at Daftarkhwan | Vogue, letting working parents maximize their productivity and do their best work without having to worry about their children’s safety. We also partnered with Vending Central for a sanitary products vending machine to make our space more gender inclusive. Daftarkhwan also actively promotes accessibility for the disabled by providing its members with wheelchair access across 6 sites.
The recession and the resulting inflation has been hard on everyone, which is why Daftarkhwan partnered with Careem to provide its members with an exclusive 20% discount to and from all Daftarkhwan sites, making it easier for people to commute to the workplace. Additionally, a collaboration with Abhi, a fintech company that aims to financially empower businesses, offers Daftarkhwan members their Early Wage Access Advances, Payroll and Invoice Financing services.
Despite the many difficulties the startup ecosystem has faced this year, we continue to grow and triumph. With 2023, let’s take the lead with the same vigor and fervor that has made this year a resounding success.