The not-terrible state of VC |
The year 2025 was not one when Pakistani startups made a comeback — but it was the year they stopped falling. Funding activity ticked up from the lows of 2024, offering a small but measurable improvement in an ecosystem that has spent the last two years recalibrating expectations and exploring rock bottom. Based on press or social media announcements compiled by Data Darbar, local startups raised approximately $36.6 million in equity capital across 10 rounds, while four additional transactions did not disclose dollar values.
On a yearly basis, that’s a modest increase from $22.5m in 2024, even as dealflow edged slightly lower to 14 transactions from 15. For the glass-half-full people, this is progress as we seem to have bounced back from rock bottom. Alternatively, you could argue that the numbers are still not only well below the highs of 2021 and 2022 but also slipped below the pre-Covid levels, when none of the frenzy really hit us. Technically, both perspectives are valid.
But what’s even more critical is that at these figures, the base is so small that activity can be moved drastically by any single round. The average disclosed equity deal size stood at roughly $3.7m, up meaningfully from last year, though this likely understates actual activity, as four of the 14 equity deals did not disclose amounts, particularly at the seed and angel stages.
From a gender lens, female-led startups raised $8.8m in disclosed equity funding, accounting for around a quarter of total capital deployed, despite representing a larger share of dealflow. This........