Can AI bring Pakistan’s small retail investors into the capital markets?

Business Recorder interviewed Ping Up co-founders Wajahat Jafri and Syed Affan Aslam about whether AI tools could bring small investors into Pakistan's capital markets. The Karachi and London-based wealth aggregator says its consumer app has run for two and a half years, while its AI-driven capital markets infrastructure is still being built. Retail participation remains below 1% of GDP despite over a decade of digital wealth apps, a gap the founders say their model addresses through financial literacy.

Ping Up presents itself as a marketplace rather than an adviser, earning a management fee from product partners and a front-end sales commission. Its AI agents for banks and asset managers remain in pilot, with a launch targeted within three months. According to Aslam, one of the country's biggest lenders is deploying the bots across 12,000 branches.

Ping Up reports a Rs20 billion cumulative volume milestone reached in 2026, four years ahead of its 2030 target. Gross wealth volume for 2026 stands at Rs8 billion, gross revenue was about Rs100 million last year, and the company has around 12,000 active customers. The founders say the business has not raised funds since October 2023, and they set a 2030 goal of almost half a million customers.