Pakistan’s great firewall could scuttle struggling tech sector

This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West.

Pakistani entrepreneur Ahmed Khan has spent the past nine years building Cheetay, a last-mile delivery startup. Khan had previously co-founded Daraz, a leading e-commerce platform in South Asia which was acquired by China’s Alibaba in 2018, and felt confident in his new company’s success.

At one point, Cheetay had real momentum: it raised around $30 million in several rounds from venture capitalists, and expanded its services to include grocery delivery. The company even won multiple tech industry awards in 2019.

But in the past few years, business stalled because of the post-Covid-19 financial crunch and an economic crisis in Pakistan. Meanwhile, global investors were reluctant to back Pakistani startups due to political turmoil in the country, which ranked among the nations with the most internet shutdowns in 2023. Then, this past July, the Pakistan government said it was setting up an internet firewall to enhance the country’s cybersecurity.

As local digital rights activists opposed the firewall and said it would allow the government to monitor and regulate content on the internet, Khan struggled to raise funds.

“Our investors no longer feel it is worth their money,” he told Rest of World during a visit to his office in August. He has decided to shut down the company entirely.

“Cheetay had...

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