Patari announced this Friday that it has secured US$ 200,000 of seed stage funding from Sarmayacar, an investor syndicate.
Patari, one of the most notable music streaming service in Pakistan, announced the investment details in a signing event in Lahore. The signing event featured Patari’s team, including its founders and current employees.
Khalid Bajwa, the CEO of Patari, said:
“Our success at Patari had been based on innovating quality products and investing in music. Our partnership with Sarmaycar will allow us to scale up and truly unleash the massive potential inherent in Pakistani music.”
Dr. Umar Saif, Chairman PITB said:
“Investors believing in the passion and entrepreneurial skills of this young lot, confirms that this culture is here to stay for a long period of time. I wish Patari and emerging startups a successful and prosperous future.”
He further stated:
“While I would encourage startups to be completely forthright, honest, transparent and responsible with regards to investor money, the investors need to patient and responsible with the startups too. They must realize that startups may falter and fail and that they must keep them motivated to make them rock stars.”
Patari launched its beta service in April of 2015 via a guerrilla marketing campaign that quickly went viral. In September of last year, the platform went live, rolling out mobile apps for iOS and Android in addition to its website. Patari’s technology was well received in the industry, and the service won the mBillionth award in India, the US Embassy in Pakistan’s Startup Cup and placed second in the World Startup Cup.
The service was appreciated for its stringent compliance to copyright laws, and won over the artist community after announcing Rs. 1.25 million in royalty payouts.
Ahmer Naqvi, the director of content at Patari said:
“Before Patari, the two truisms of the local music industry were that no one adheres to copyrights, and no one pays royalties. We were able to show that both can be done, and as such our story is a story of success not just for the music industry, but also an example of how Pakistanis are creating world-class tech products.”
Earlier this year, Patari had become the first digital partners from Pakistan in tech giant Facebook’s F8 program, allowing greater compatibility for Patari products within the Facebook platform. Patari has also secured several high-profile musical releases, including the exclusive digital rights to releases by artists like Noori, Mooroo, Uzair Jaswal and the soundtracks for films like Ho Mann Jahan and Bin Roye. It also released an EP called ‘Patari Aslis’, which comprised of original tracks by indie artists funded by Patari. One of the songs on the EP, Mehdi Maloof’s Do Hi Rastay Hain, went onto be nominated for a Lux Style Award.
Sarmayacar, the investor syndicate investing in Patari, primarily focuses on angel and seed stage investments, and Patari is its first partner.
Rabeel Waraich, founder of Sarmayacar said:
“We chose Patari because it is a startup driven by a dynamic team that will help revitalise the waning music industry of Pakistan. With Patari’s platform, we hope to propel the upcoming music scene to new heights and bring back the golden era of Pakistani music.”
Ma garab ho
To Hum kia kraennn
Tey mar jao
In 2016, we are thinking the music streaming is a tech product? Sounds like 90s product. Everything has already happened in music streaming and sharing in last 20 years. Are these people living in cave? 200k usd, gone forever.