• UAE-based Emerging Markets Property Group (EMPG) has invested Seed capital in Pakistan’s Daftarkhwan. The amount invested was not disclosed.
• Founded in 2016 by Saad Idrees, Daftarkhwan is a network of coworking spaces operating in Pakistan.
• Daftarkhwan will use the investment to further expand in the country.

Press release:

Regional classifieds giant Emerging Markets Property Group (EMPG) has invested Seed capital in Daftarkhwan, a Pakistani startup for co-working spaces.

EMPG owns and operates a staggering 10 brands across 16 countries in the property and classified spaces, and reached unicorn status in 2020. In the UAE, EMPG leads the market with Bayut and dubizzle. 

Daftarkhwan kicked off operations in 2016 and is one of the pioneers of the coworking movement in Pakistan, a country of 220 million people with a booming startup ecosystem that has captured significant investor interest in 2021. 

EMPG CEO Imran Ali Khan said that they were impressed with the hardworking team behind Daftarkhwan which represents Pakistani ingenuity at its best. 

"One of the key drivers of EMPG's own success has been its investment in the right people above all else, and the team at the helm of Daftarkhwan are some of the most hard-working, ambitious and dedicated people in Pakistan's startup ecosystem,” said Khan.

With this seed round, EMPG joins Walled City Co as investors in Daftarkhwan as the company gears up to change how people work all over Pakistan. This new investment will help EMPG explore the new domain of co-working spaces, which have seen a boom following the post-pandemic shift to creating more remote models creating a greater demand for such economical business setup options. This move is in line with the Unicorn’s vision to support more tech entrepreneurs and create more success stories in their many markets of operation. 

Over the years, Daftarkhwan has been a core driver of the startup ecosystems of Lahore and has seen such stellar member companies as Airlift, Jugnu, Unlayer and Careem, among many others, take root and take-off. Some of the leading Pakistani and regional startups currently operating out of Daftarkhwan have raised $570 million in investments in 2021 alone.

“Since its inception, Daftarkhwan’s singular focus has been to help founders build and scale their businesses. This has given us a front-row seat to the phenomenal growth of the startup industry in Pakistan,” said Saad Idrees, the co-founder of Daftarkhwan.

"Daftarkhwan has always taken great pride in being more than just an office for its community of entrepreneurs and innovators, and we are excited to expand this community further," Idrees added.