Pakistan-based Mahaana Wealth has obtained regulatory approvals from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to launch digitally-backed investment management solutions.

The approval allows the company to provide digital wealth management services.

It comes as the firm recently completed a $2.1m pre-seed round, led by Swedish firm Vostok Emerging Finance (VEF), SparkLabs, a startup accelerator that is a part of SparkLabs Global Ventures, and Pakistan’s IGI Insurance.

The round was also supported by Mattias Martinsson, co-founder of Sweden-based fund manager Tundra Fonder, along with other investors worldwide.

The funding is expected to help Mahaana Wealth to meet regulatory capital needs.

Mahaana Wealth founder/CEO and ex-partner of Tundra Fonder Muhammad Shamoon Tariq said: “In a country where more than 50% of the population is under debt and spends 30% of their monthly income on repaying debt, the company sees opportunities for every person in Pakistan to create a financial security net in the form of building their savings and retirement funds.

“It’s heartening to see the SECP proactively bringing the required policy reforms and introducing new licence categories, such as digital Asset Management and digital Investment Advisors, to get away with the regulatory bottlenecks restricting individual retirement and saving accounts, and we are glad we were part of the consultations and now geared up to turn that into reality.”

As per new Economic Survey 2021-22 report, Pakistan has more than 220 million people, of which 67.25 million are part of the labour force.

World Bank data revealed that the country’s gross savings ratio is estimated at nearly 13% of its GDP, which is less than the global average of around 26%. However, approximately 250,000 investors are based in Pakistan.

Mahaana Wealth aims to use modern financial technology to develop a platform to include Pakistan’s working population.