BuyPass, the Karachi video commerce app that pairs online shopping with a TV channel
Ex Daraz executive Ammar Hassan's BuyPass pairs a shopping app with a TV channel it says reaches more than 90 percent of Pakistan. Its 2026 pre seed round is undisclosed, and the traction figures are its own.
BuyPass is a Karachi online shopping company that wants your television as well as your phone. It runs a shopping app and, it says, a shopping channel with distribution across more than 90 percent of the country, selling phones, fashion, beauty products and groceries through live broadcasts and the app. In June 2026 it announced a pre seed round led by Myco Holdings, a streaming company launched from the UAE by a Pakistani founder, and BuyPass's own founder is now set to lead Myco's Pakistan business as well.
An ex Daraz executive goes into stealth
BuyPass is the creation of Muhammad Ammar Hassan, who spent 15 years in the corporate world before starting it, according to Startup Pakistan. Pakistan Observer reported in October 2024 that he is a former executive at OLX, owned by Prosus, and at Daraz, owned by Alibaba, with a decade of experience launching C2C and B2C platforms. The Startup Pakistan headline went further and described him as a former Daraz growth vice president, a title the article itself did not repeat.
At that point BuyPass.ai was in stealth. It had closed an angel round, co led and facilitated by Umair Masoom, a UAE based Pakistani entrepreneur whom Pakistan Observer credited with a record of raising more than $30 million from venture investors. Masoom joined as founder partner and board member. The pitch was broad: a digital superapp offering software and AI tools in one place. Public launch was planned for June 2025. Masoom offered a compact endorsement.
“Ammar is one of the most exceptional young business leaders I have come across in my professional journey.”
What a shopping channel does that a marketplace cannot
The product that emerged is more conventional online than the superapp promised, with a twist. BuyPass's website lists 26 categories in its main menu, along with a QR and barcode scanner and a Become Seller link, and gives an office in Korangi Industrial Area in Karachi. The iPhone listing adds the unusual parts: live shopping through TV broadcasts, a section called StarShop with products recommended by influencers, Buy and Win promotions, cash on delivery and same city delivery within three hours.
The bet is about where Pakistani attention already sits. TechJuice argued that short video on TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels produces heavy engagement but little direct revenue for Pakistani creators and sellers, and that BuyPass builds shopping into the video itself. It also noted that Pakistan's ecommerce is concentrated among a few players, Daraz among them, and cited more than 90 million internet users. A television channel adds something an app cannot. It reaches households that have not installed anything, and it turns a presenter holding a product into a purchase prompt. That is my inference from the model, not a claim the company has quantified.
Startup Pakistan had said that, before launch, the team planned to bring apps, entertainment and other services into one platform, a one stop solution for customers. The shopping channel fits that idea better than a plain marketplace does. The app's provider is listed as Buypass Tech Private Limited.
Notably, none of the coverage I read, including Profit and Digital Pakistan, explains how BuyPass earns money. Whether the business takes commission from sellers, a margin on its own stock or fees from brands that appear on air is not public.
Myco's money and a change at the top
On 12 June 2026 Profit reported that Myco Holdings had led BuyPass's pre seed round. The size was not disclosed. Profit describes Myco as a Web3 streaming and media technology platform launched in 2021 from the UAE by a Pakistani founder, and reports that it claims more than 40 million registered users. A roundup by i2i Ventures names Daman Investments as the other backer. Digital Pakistan reported that Hassan has taken a leadership role across Myco's ecosystem and will lead both Myco Pakistan and BuyPass.
Myco's thesis, as TechJuice summarised it, is that media technology is one of the region's most underexploited opportunities, especially in Pakistan. BuyPass is its bet on that idea.
The sources disagree on one person. Profit identified Ahmed Khizer Khan as chief executive of Daman Investments and said he had supported BuyPass from its early stages. TechJuice called him a cofounder of BuyPass who drives product and operations. Both can be true, but the public record does not settle it.
Names need care too. Profit, Digital Pakistan and TechJuice give Myco's founder as Umair Masoom Usmani. The 2024 coverage of BuyPass's angel round names its co lead as Umair Masoom, also a UAE based Pakistani entrepreneur. No article says outright that they are one person, so this piece uses each name as its source gives it. Usmani framed the 2026 round in a LinkedIn post that TechJuice quoted.
“BuyPass will fast track its journey towards making video commerce mainstream in Pakistan.”
Big reach, unverified numbers
The traction figures all come from the company and its investor. BuyPass says it has passed 1 million app downloads and has nearly 500,000 monthly active users, and that BuyPass TV has distribution coverage above 90 percent nationwide. Distribution coverage typically measures where a channel can be received, not how many people watch it, and no audience data has been published. When checked in October 2026, the Pakistan listing on Apple's App Store showed a rating of 2.8 out of 5 from 76 ratings. Reviews are mixed: one says prices are similar to or higher than Daraz, another calls the app laggy and buggy, and others praise the pricing and the product videos. That is a small sample from one platform, but it is the only independent signal I found.
What comes next is clearer than how it will be paid for. The new money is meant to speed up BuyPass's push into video commerce, and Usmani told his LinkedIn followers that the incoming scale will be notable in the months to come. For BuyPass the test is whether a television channel can produce repeat buyers in a market where a few players, Daraz among them, dominate. A shopping channel is a clever way to acquire customers. Keeping them is a different job, and it is the one the next round of numbers will need to show.
Reported from coverage in Profit, TechJuice, Digital Pakistan, Pakistan Observer and Startup Pakistan, and from BuyPass's website, its App Store listing and an i2i Ventures roundup.
