Coworking startup Daftarkhwan has raised seed funding from regional classifieds unicorn EMPG and is the parent company of real estate portal Zameen.com. This is the second round of investment raised by the Lahore-based startup after angel investment from Walled City Co. in 2018.
Daftarkhwan kicked off operations in 2016 and is one of the pioneers of the coworking movement in Pakistan and now boasts five locations, hosting 1,650+ professionals across three cities on a daily basis.
According to a press statement, during COVID-19, the startup grew 5x and expanded into 2 new cities. With the sites currently under development, Daftarkhwan is set to double in size once more and will host 3,000+ individuals across its facilities nationwide by Q3 2022.
“Since its inception, Daftarkhwan’s singular focus has been to help founders build and scale their businesses. Inadvertently, 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.
The superstar Pakistani and regional startups currently operating out of Daftarkhwan have raised $570 million in investments in 2021 alone, it said.
“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.
“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.
