Category: Technology

Pakistan’s National AI Policy outlines innovation, public awareness, secure systems and international collaboration, targeting around Rs278 billion (about US$1 billion) in investment by 2030. The policy aims to train one million AI professionals and 10,000 AI trainers by 2030.

The conference will feature a high-level meeting on global AI governance, with UN leadership and other international figures expected to attend. Major US technology firms are largely absent from the lineup.

The agenda will emphasise bridging the AI divide, widening equitable access to AI technologies, and ensuring that the benefits of AI advance sustainable development.

Pakistan previously joined Tajikistan’s UN mission in hosting a high-level AI discussion at UN headquarters, highlighting youth empowerment and AI-driven development plans.

Metal, a Pakistan-based startup, has raised US$4.5 million in a seed funding round led by a16z Speedrun and Y Combinator. Participation also came from Pioneer Fund, Rebel Fund, Gaingels, Indus Valley Capital, Team Ignite Ventures and Phaze Ventures.

The company’s founder and CEO, Usman Gul, previously co-founded the logistics startup Airlift Technologies. Gul announced the round through a social media post.

Metal is building an AI operating system designed to assist founders with fundraising and venture capital workflows. According to the company, it targets a persistent pain point that early-stage founders face when navigating capital formation.

As per the company’s press release, with Airlift it raised US$120 million in venture financing over three years, during which it spoke with roughly 300 unique investors. About 80 per cent of those investors were not a fit for its stage, sector, geography or check size at the time.

According to Gul, Metal is on track for multimillion-dollar annual revenue and has posted six consecutive quarters of 30 to 80 per cent sequential growth. Those figures are company claims rather than audited disclosures.

Fatima Gobi Ventures (FGV) has become the first Pakistan-based venture capital fund to back a unicorn, after digital-asset company Fasset reached a US$1 billion valuation following a US$68 million Series C funding round led by Japan’s SBI Group.

The round pushed Fasset’s total capital raised in 2026 to US$119 million. The company had raised US$51 million in Series B funding in May 2026, which brought Speedinvest onto its cap table. FGV first backed Fasset in early 2022, co-leading its US$22 million Series A alongside Liberty City Ventures.

By the Series C close, Fasset was processing over US$40 billion in annualised transaction volume, operating in 125 countries, and serving more than 3 million wallets and around 1,000 enterprise clients. Revenue had grown roughly sixfold year on year, with a profitable balance sheet.

Naiel Oberoi Ikram, Managing Partner at Gobi Partners Pakistan, told Business Recorder on September 25 that while the milestone matters, the startup ecosystem needs to grow well beyond a single unicorn. The harder work, he said, still lies ahead.

Fasset’s Pakistan entry runs through a partnership with Habib Rafiq Limited, an infrastructure and real estate group founded in 1962. The plan has two parts: tokenising real estate so international investors can invest with less friction, and giving Pakistan’s freelance workforce faster ways to receive and reinvest international income.

Pakistan’s tax authority is preparing to expand artificial intelligence checks on tax returns to identify undeclared income and assets, a senior official said this week, part of a push to increase revenues under an IMF-backed economic reform programme.

Pakistan has struggled to bring more economic activity into its tax system, leaving a narrow base of taxpayers and limiting the government’s ability to finance public services without borrowing. Stronger collection is a central objective of its reform commitments to the International Monetary Fund.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) plans to cross-check declarations against property, banking, vehicle and other records. Following a pilot involving a limited number of income tax and sales tax returns, it intends to apply the models to income tax filings for the year ended June 2026 and subsequent sales tax returns, the official said.

“This time the system will leave nowhere to hide,” he told Arab News, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly. “It does not get tired and it does not miss a line. Our campaign this year says ‘FBR Sab Janta Hai’ (FBR knows everything). With this system, that is no longer just a slogan.”

According to the official, the models will check returns against tax-law requirements, compare declarations with those of similar taxpayers and identify inconsistencies with information obtained from other sources. A flagged discrepancy would require examination but would not, by itself, establish fraud.

“Returns flagged by the AI could be selected for audit, face assessment proceedings, or trigger compliance nudges asking taxpayers to correct their filings,” the official said.