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SeenReport (Pvt.) Ltd. has successfully closed its first round of investment from Al-Janabi Group (Official press release)

Phew, I had to keep this news secret for so long that I started having stomach problems. Now that its out, I feel much relieved . Yaser beat me to the blog post, here is his take on the same news.

With achieving this milestone, SeenReport (Pvt) Ltd has joined a handful of Pakistani startups that have received investment from foreign VCs. A feat for which the whole SeenReport team deserves a thorough congratulations. This is especially great news for our CEO, Sharjeel who can now stop sleeping on the floors to save money on his international trips (also keep his PS2)

From three computers and some pretty cheap furniture, the path to a multi-million dollar company has been paved with hard work, more hard work, patience, dedication, trust, sleepless nights, depressions and hope. When we started out two years ago, the odds were really stacked against us. Startups are by default very hard, and being in Pakistan during the financial crisis situation only makes the situation more grim. Add the flavors of heavy criticism and stigma of failure and you get a recipe of anti-startup culture. By the grace of God, hard work of the team, prayers of our families, advice of our advisors, dedication of our users and some pure luck, SeenReport has overcome these odds. The selfless help of people like Belal Hashmi, Shafiq-ur-Rehman, Hashim Ali (CEO Mantaq Systems (Pvt.) Ltd.), Mr. Shahid Malik, Rabia Garib and Jehan Ara has really helped us along, for which we are obliged.

However, getting investment neither equals nor guarantees success. In fact it adds responsibility and accountability to the existing (over) burdened shoulders of the founders. SeenReport still has a long way to go in becoming an Organization capable of generating sustained results but I am confident that we are well on our way.  We are now more committed and determined to generate results than ever before.

I meet a lot of entrepreneurs who believe that they have the next big idea and all they need is funding. And since they cant get any funding, they are unsuccessful. Well, we started with one basic rule,

There are no VCs

This made our lives much easier (believe me). We knew that we had to do everything by ourselves, all the money had to come out of our own pockets and all leads generated on our own. So, we put our heads down and focused all our energies in making SeenReport the best platform for social news generation and creating awareness among people about it. The logic was simple, Make something great, achieve results and let the results speak for themselves. This didn’t win us a lot of brownie points among the typical “Write plans, get money, hire someone to make product” theory but it did attract the right people with similar mindset.

I am confident that this news will encourage more young Pakistani entrepreneurs to start their own ventures. VC culture develops because of the new horizons entrepreneurs create, not the other way around. Remember, the most important thing required to change the world is the belief to change the world.

Raising the investment during the on-going financial crisis underlines the faith both SeenReport and Al-Janabi Group have in the SeenReport team and the business model. I would like to welcome Al-Janabi Group to the SeenReport team and feel excited to work together in taking SeenReport to greater heights.

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