Squeezed between Iran, Afghanistan, China and India, Pakistan is the fifth most populous country in the world, with more than 250 million inhabitants and ahead of Brazil. But more than half of its population (53%) is excluded from the banking system, according to data from the Asian country’s central bank.
According to the local central bank, one of the main reasons for the population to be unbanked is the lack of knowledge about financial products and their use. A startup, however, wants to change that with cryptocurrencies and neighborhood stores.
Brandon Timinsky co-founded the startup ZAR with Sebastian Scholl after founding, in 2019, and selling, in 2024, SadaPay to the Turkish company Papara. Although recently created, the initiative has already attracted major investors.
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The young company has already secured a round of investment led by venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) and raised around R$70 million. The financing also included participation from Dragonfly Capital, VanEck Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and Endeavor Catalyst.
According to a document released by the company, the insight is simple: all countries already have convenience stores, grocery stores and small businesses that move hundreds of billions in money every year. The company’s idea is to transform these physical money exchange points into access points to the dollarized economy, using dollar-backed digital currencies, the so-called
“Enter your neighborhood store, scan a QR Code, hand over your money and receive the stablecoins in your digital wallet, ready to be used, saved or sent to other wallets”, explains the document. The startup also reported that its wallets are linked to a Visa card, which is accepted globally.
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The startup’s fundraising coincides with growing government support for digital currencies in Pakistan, which, like other emerging countries, is exploring ways to strengthen insufficient traditional banking infrastructure.
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“In Asia, Africa and Latin America, more than a billion people live in cash-based economies, where traditional banking services are unreliable, savings decline due to inflation and access to stable currencies like the US dollar is limited”, states the statement, also released on the company’s LinkedIn.
