Digital media startup MangoBaaz raises $115,000 in seed funding

Published December 15, 2016
Image courtesy MIT Tech Review Pakistan
Image courtesy MIT Tech Review Pakistan

Popular online platform MangoBaaz has secured major funding from a domestic investor. The startup has raised $115,000 from Fatima Ventures, a subsidiary of the Fatima Group.

MangoBaaz is one of Pakistan’s first media companies that focuses on creating digital content for its millennial audience, similar to companies such as ScoopWhoop in India, and BuzzFeed or Vice in the US.

After running it as an experiment early last year, co-founders Ali Ahsan and Ali Gul left high paying jobs in the US and started working full time on MangoBaaz in August 2015. With help from PlanX, one of Pakistan’s largest accelerators, MangoBaaz has reached over a million monthly active users on its website within just a year. Audience for its video content is also increasing at a fast pace.

MangoBaaz has now become Pakistan’s first media startup to receive funding from a venture capital firm.

Co-founder Ali Ahsan says, “The investment means that one of Pakistan’s largest companies analyzed MangoBaaz, on all business aspects and identified it as an attractive investment opportunity which serves as a significant validation of the company’s business model.” Ali Gul, the other co-founder of MangoBaaz, adds, “This investment will allow us to expand our existing operations, scale video operations and invest in more business initiatives that will diversify the services offered by MangoBaaz to both its audience and business partners.”

Read more: Local Startup Secures Domestic Funding Worth $280k

“We are very confident in the success of MangoBaaz considering the immense potential of Digital Advertising in Pakistan and exponential growth and monetizable social media content,” says Ali Mukhtar, CEO of Fatima Ventures.“We have already invested in startups from Interactive Broadcast and Beauty industries such as InteraCta and BeautyHooked. Our investment in MangoBaaz is a logical progression and strategic choice.”

In just a year, MangoBaaz’s list of clients includes global names such as Coca Cola, Nestle, Unilever, YouTube, Reckitt Benckiser, Samsung, Uber and Telenor among others. MangoBaaz has also worked with other business partners such as OMD and GroupM, the world’s largest media investment group.

Recently, MangoBaaz also launched a web portal called MangoBaaz Campus for university students in Pakistan.

This piece first appeared on MIT Technology Review Pakistan and has been reproduced with permission.

Follow Dawn Business on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook for insights on business, finance and tech from Pakistan and across the world.

Opinion

Editorial

Punishing evaders
02 May, 2024

Punishing evaders

THE FBR’s decision to block mobile phone connections of more than half a million individuals who did not file...
Engaging Riyadh
Updated 02 May, 2024

Engaging Riyadh

It must be stressed that to pull in maximum foreign investment, a climate of domestic political stability is crucial.
Freedom to question
02 May, 2024

Freedom to question

WITH frequently suspended freedoms, increasing violence and few to speak out for the oppressed, it is unlikely that...
Wheat protests
Updated 01 May, 2024

Wheat protests

The government should withdraw from the wheat trade gradually, replacing the existing market support mechanism with an effective new one over the next several years.
Polio drive
01 May, 2024

Polio drive

THE year’s fourth polio drive has kicked off across Pakistan, with the aim to immunise more than 24m children ...
Workers’ struggle
Updated 01 May, 2024

Workers’ struggle

Yet the struggle to secure a living wage — and decent working conditions — for the toiling masses must continue.