Venture Capital in Pakistan on the Rise with Idea Croron Ka
Season 3 of Idea Croron Ka has taken the development of venture capital ecosystem in Pakistan through the roof! Episode 7 of the latest season saw yet another huge investment of Rs. 3 Crore raised by Le Pur Organics – an online platform that provides 100% organic products, the first of its kind in Pakistan.
Full episode can be watched here.
This episode was very special for many reasons. It was not just this huge amount of investment raised that made it special but also for the fact that Justice Nasira Iqbal, appeared as the ‘Superhero of Pakistan’ and for the fact that the entire crew and staff came for the shoot amidst massive strikes in Lahore on 2nd of November.
In lieu of this, Nabeel Qadeer – Lead, Host and Content Producer Idea Croron Ka said:
“The purpose of this show is very simple, no matter what the situation is, the economic growth should not stop and that can only be done by our youth. This is the show of the youth, the show of Pakistan and the main goal of this is to enable the youth of our country to create their own destinies and not just that but also the destiny of their country Pakistan.”
Rukhsana Ibad, Founder Le Pur Organics, said the thing that inspired her to start this business was the fact that in Pakistan ‘natural’ products were sold in the name of organic foods and there was no check and balance on the kind of substances used to make them. I identified this as a large gap and felt that it needs to be filled. She mentioned:
“Today we can proudly claim that we are the only ‘Made in Pakistan’ company that manufactures 100% organic food. Yes we import the raw materials from abroad but how we stand out from the rest is the fact that the other so-called organic product companies import finished products and just do the packaging here while for our products we do the finishing of the raw materials and product manufacturing entirely in Pakistan.”
The startup asked for an investment of Rs 4 Crore against an equity of 25%. The first time investor of the show - Munawar Abdullah, Founder ImpTrax offered them a counter amount of Rs 2 Crores against an 45% equity. After negotiation with the startup, the investment was settled at Rs 3 Crore against an equity of 30%.
Qaiser Ansari – CEO Pantera Energy and a consultant for Deewan Group, who appeared as another investor on the show, offered the startup founders free mentorship.
“This show is setting great precedence for the startups that have started generating money but now are towards scaling up their businesses. This is the kind of money that will help them scale and this is the kind of advise that will help them grow,” said Nabeel Qadeer, Chair UNCTAD (Commonwealth Entrepreneurship Project in Pakistan), Chief Innovation Officer The Superior Group and Co-founder Innovation District 92.
The startup briefed that they will use this investment raised not just for marketing and scaling their business but also particularly for purchasing large amounts of inventory to reduce their per unit costs of production.