How NayaPay waited for a licence, then built a wallet for students and freelancers

NayaPay spent about two years waiting for the State Bank of Pakistan before it could open its wallet to the public. When it finally raised money in February 2022, the $13 million seed round was the largest in South Asia at that point, according to TechCrunch. Four years on, the company has no public user count, but it has a payments licence, a long list of bank and remittance partners, and, since April, a business account built on the corporate regulator's own records.

From China trips to a licence

Danish Lakhani, NayaPay's founder and chief executive, holds degrees from Brown, Stanford and Harvard Business School. He had helped build the broadband company Cybernet when the idea came to him on trips to China, where WeChat Pay and Alipay had turned the phone into a wallet. Pakistan was a cash heavy market: TechCrunch reported that only about 1 percent of the country's roughly $4 trillion in annual payments moved electronically.

The approvals were slow and public. The State Bank gave NayaPay in principle approval on 30 September 2019. Certifications for payment card security and information security followed that year. The bank cleared a pilot on 18 May 2020, and on 29 July 2020 NayaPay announced a partnership with Visa. On 2 September 2021, after a year long pilot and an inspection, the bank granted it commercial approval as an electronic money institution. Its sponsors are the Lakson Group, a conglomerate with interests in consumer goods, media and fibre broadband. Partners had been lining up well before the licence arrived: Meezan Bank in November 2018, Faysal Bank in February 2020, Telenor Pakistan and Zong in March 2020, Jazz in January 2021 and JS Bank in August 2021.

The product that went on sale was a wallet opened on a smartphone in a few minutes with a CNIC. It came with a virtual Visa card at sign up for online shopping, and a physical Visa debit card delivered free, usable at more than 46 million merchants worldwide. Users could send money in a chat, split bills and top up mobile credit.

Students, freelancers and a $13 million seed

The first customers NayaPay chased were students and freelancers. Lakhani told TechCrunch that they were "among the most underbanked population", with high lifetime value once banked. Only about one in three Pakistani women held a bank account, he added, and the company wanted to reach them too.

On 24 February 2022 NayaPay announced the seed round. Zayn Capital, MSA Novo and Graph Ventures led it, according to the company, with Saison Capital, Maple Leaf Capital, Empower Finance chief executive Warren Hogarth and the Lakson Group sponsors also taking part. The company set itself a target of 5 million users within five years. It also planned a software platform for businesses, called Arc, pitched on the fact that micro, small and medium businesses make up 90 percent of Pakistan's merchant base.

Banks, remittances and Alipay

Over the next two years NayaPay signed up the institutions that move money. Askari Bank became a partner bank in January 2022, then came Euronet Pakistan in April and StormFiber in May. A remittance tie up with UBL followed in October 2022 and another with HBL in January 2023. The Bank of Punjab collaborated with it in March 2023, and in November 2023 it won Best Fintech at the Pakistan Banking Awards. In February 2024 it partnered with the Frontier Works Organization to digitise M Tag payments. In May 2024 Soneri Bank became a partner bank, and NayaPay card holders got five free cash withdrawals a month at UBL ATMs, an offer that excluded every other bank's machines.

The most distinctive partnership was with Alipay+, the global wallet gateway of Ant International. It began in early 2024, when NayaPay became what the company described as Pakistan's first fintech to enable direct QR payments at more than 80 million merchants in China. In December 2025 it extended scan and pay to Alipay+ merchants in more than 50 countries, on a network that Alipay+ says connects 40 international mobile payment partners to more than 150 million merchants. Forbes Asia put NayaPay on its 100 to Watch list in August 2024, and CB Insights named it to its Fintech 100 that October.

A new look and a business account

On 30 June 2025, three years after the first version of its app, NayaPay launched a rebrand designed with the studio Koto. The new emblem, called Dyno, is made of interlocking arrows, and the physical Visa card now comes in Electric Orange with a pattern inspired by it. In May 2026 the Brands Foundation named NayaPay its Emerging Brand of the Year for 2025.

The more consequential change is on the business side. On 7 April 2026 NayaPay signed a memorandum of understanding with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan to connect directly to the commission's eZfile system, giving it secure, real time access to verified company information. The company said the link shortens onboarding and improves data accuracy for businesses registered with the commission.

At the seed stage the company had described Arc as universal payment acceptance and financial management tools for small and medium businesses. NayaPay Business offers invoicing and payment links, Visa debit cards with spending limits for team members, bill payments from one place, and a dedicated account for revenue and expenses. It is rolling out as a beta to companies registered with the commission, with a waitlist for the rest. On 7 August 2026 NayaPay won the Fintech Start Up category for Pakistan at the Asian Banking and Finance Awards, and said in the same announcement that NayaPay Business was almost here.

NayaPay has not published user numbers, revenue or any funding since the 2022 seed round, so its target of 5 million users within five years cannot be checked. What can be checked is the sequence: a licence in 2021, bank and remittance partners through 2023, global QR payments in 2024 and 2025, and now a waitlist for companies that already appear on the commission's register.