The fintech announced Thursday that digital accounting app Metric, which caters to small and medium businesses (SMBs) and startups, has raised $900,000 in an oversubscribed round of pre-seed funding.
The Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan (MENAP)-based company raised funding in a round led by i2i Ventures, along with participation from local and international venture capitalists (VCs) including Ratio Ventures, Devasai Ventures, Kinno Capital, Outliers Ventures. Capital and Augmenter Capital.
Angels including Giacomo Ficari, Founder of Aspire and Lifepal, Alam Zafar, Chairperson of Arif Habib Ltd., Deep Tech VC Faridul Haque and Rameez Zafar, Founder of Eligible.AI also participated in the round.
This marked the first round of investment by Outliers Venture Capital and Augmentor Capital in the Pakistan-based startup, according to a press release.
“The startup plans to use this round to grow across Pakistan and rapidly expand to other markets in the MENA region,” the press release said.
Founder and App
Metric, which was launched in August 2021 by Mina Tariq and Umar Parvez Khan, reached $20 million in annual recorded transactions within five months during the closed alpha, the press release said.
Tariq and Khan, who were involved in “the rapid growth of Pakistan’s startup ecosystem over the past decade, have worked with and trained over a thousand small businesses over the years”.
“Both were partners in venture capital funds before switching over to the operator,” the press release said, adding that they also worked with startups in other emerging and frontier markets, including Bangladesh, Nepal, Iraq, Myanmar and Vietnam Was.
His third co-founder and chief technology officer, Dr. Habiba, is a PhD in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
The press release quoted him as saying, “The MENAP sector has over 30 million SMBs and startups, contributing $2 trillion to the sector’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product).”
“However, most founders are held hostage by fear of numbers and cannot afford a high quality accountant. Current accounting software solutions are either cost prohibitive or designed for the use of accountants, not founders. ,” he told. “As a result, their businesses suffer and fail to grow.”
“Metric lets you take control of your company’s finances and get access to real-time dashboards, professional reports and insights – in a very interactive, friendly way,” said the co-founder.
“This is not a cashbook or ledger app; it is an accounting and business intelligence solution that founders can start using on their first day of business, with up to 50 employees. We aim to make Metric the most founder-friendly business in the world. Finance app,” she said.
Early-stage founders can start using the app for free so they don’t have to worry about spending resources on accounting while attempting to get their business off the ground, the press release said. that as their business grew, they could graduate. For the paid version that will give them access to “fully digitized, auditable accounts”.
In this regard, Khan said, “We want founders to use accounting as a tool to drive growth. The metric monitors the health of your businesses in real-time.”
“It not only tracks core metrics such as CAC (customer acquisition cost), AOV (average order value), CLV (customer lifetime value), growth and retention – it helps business owners make strategic decisions that help them make their own decisions. Enables us to take the business to the next level,” he explained. “This is the modern way of doing accounting. Traditional accounting is a cost center. Modern accounting is a profit center.”
‘App will solve the challenges of millions’
After the company raised the funds, i2i Ventures co-founder Kalsoom Lakhani said: “I have been fortunate to have worked closely with both Meena and Umar. [during] Last seven years in Pakistan startup space. They both not only care deeply about the problem, they have also been close to it, and have designed a solution with the user at the center.”
The press release quoted him as saying, “We are extremely honored to have them support further metrics that we know will address the challenges facing millions of SMBs in Pakistan and the region.”
Faiz Ul Haq, partner at Kinnow Capital, said the metric is going to make bookkeeping and management easier for SMB founders as it was for larger companies with dedicated accounting teams.
“This is an acute pain point for small business owners today and the Metric team with their deep accounting and finance background and a tech-forward approach is well positioned to solve it. We look forward to partnering with them on this journey.” Excited to,” he said. ,
Ryan Dawood, investment partner at Outliers Venture Capital, explained that SMBs and startups globally were challenged by “backend operations that do not fall within the core competencies of their founders”.
“We are thrilled to partner with Meena and Omar and support the growth of Metric in the MENAP region as they create a platform that enables the day-to-day operations of companies, as well as enabling business owners to make proactive decisions. Equipped with the equipment for this,” he added. ,
According to Shahryar Hydari, Partner, Devasai Ventures, Metric is “one of those rare platforms that lets you start using it with minimal effort and then systematically help you grow your business and mature as a manager.” Provides extremely powerful tools for
“It is intuitive to use and can easily become the secret sauce to transform the quality of MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) across the globe,” he said.