ZoodPay enters Pakistan with acquisition of Tez Financial Services

By Leandra Monteiro

ZoodPay, a leading digital lending platform for e-commerce in the Middle East and Central Asia, has entered Pakistan by fully acquiring Karachi-based Tez Financial Services (Tez). Backed by investors including Planet N, Flourish Ventures (Omidyar Network) and Accion, Tez became the first FinTech in Pakistan to be granted a Non-Bank Financial Company (NBFC) license in 2018 and ever since has carved out a specialized niche in the consumer lending space providing nano-loans to the unbanked and underbanked masses across Pakistan. Through this acquisition, ZoodPay is positioning itself as a key new player in the digital lending and FinTech industry in Pakistan.

Commenting on the expansion, Michael Khoi, CEO of ZoodPay said, “Pakistan is a market brimming with potential given the number of people seeking access to credit facilities. We’re confident that by combining ZoodPay’s unique ecosystem and experience operating in frontier markets with Tez’s local know-how, strong team and ecosystem partnerships, we’ll be able to positively impact the life of Pakistani people and empower them by giving them access to easy, affordable and reliable digital financial services”

Less than 5% of individuals in Pakistan have access to formal credit. ZoodPay aims to address this problem by leveraging its B2B2C digital-lending ecosystem. The company’s lending strategy is fortified by three integral elements of digital infrastructure including, (i) Acquisition of consumers and merchants via its diverse distribution channels including its own e-commerce marketplace and network of retailers and partners, (ii) Deriving rich transactional data from its internal universe of fintech, e-commerce marketplace and logistics, and (iii) Leveraging its proprietary credit scoring algorithms to assess credit risk and extend credit to both consumers and merchants.

This dynamic ecosystem is supplemented by the combined strengths of ZoodPay and Tez, whereby ZoodPay brings its supreme execution ability from regional markets with almost 10 million users across five countries and Tez brings deep insights into digital consumer lending with a successful track record in mitigating default levels.

Naureen Hyat and Humza Hussain, Co-founders of Tez said, “We started Tez with an ambition to make access to finance for the masses as easy as access to a mobile phone. We are humbled and thrilled by the confidence shown in our business model by larger regional players and look forward to the next level of development for Tez where our learnings in crafting the digital lending journey and managing risk can serve as a foundation for delivering consumer-centric lending solutions at scale, while creating credit histories for the masses.”

Nadeem Hussain, Chairman of Tez said, “The Pakistani start-up ecosystem has hit its inflection point. In addition to sizable fundraises, acquisitions of local players by international players are starting to take place. This further validates the global value Pakistani start-ups are creating. Planet N was one of the first in the market to invest in start-ups. We are now seeing the first-mover advantage.”