The State Bank of Pakistan’s first licensed, private, digital credit bureau, operating with the brand name ‘Tasdeeq’ and the corporate name ‘Aequitas Information Services’ has announced the closure of its Rs. 500 million Series A financing.
The Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN), the Pakistan Credit Rating Agency (PACRA), and 47 Ventures Investments participated in the round along with company sponsors and multiple individual investors.
The Lahore-based credit bureau has already secured data-sharing contracts with all the commercial and microfinance banks and processes the data of over 15 million banked consumers through its machine learning-based analytics platform.
Tasdeeq was the first B2B product launched by Aequitas that offers credit information reports (CIRs) to banks to facilitate their credit decision-making process. It aims to secure data from other sources like utility companies and telecommunication operators (as allowed by its license) to strengthen its analytics.
Aequitas is already furnishing between 20,000 and 30,000 credit information requests every day, and plans to use the funds to develop and introduce new and innovative consumer and business products into the market.
The CEO of Aequitas, Mumtaz Syed, said
Privatizing credit information processing and reporting services is an innovative measure by the SBP and opens the door for introducing transformative innovation into these services. With our cutting edge analytics platform, and feedback from the market, we plan on introducing several new products for consumers, banks and SMEs in the coming months.
Khurram Zafar, the founder of 47 Ventures Investments and a director on the board of Aequitas, said, “The digital lending space is about to explode in Pakistan and a reliable credit information processing and reporting service is a necessary catalyst to enable that growth. Aequitas is by far the most technologically advanced, thorough and inclusive service led by a world-class management team and we are happy to fund the company’s growth to the next level”.
Source: Pro Pakistani