Sarmayacar

Rabeel Warraich founded the firm and serves as General Partner, drawing on his prior experience deploying over $3B at GIC and his earlier syndicate investing. Bernhard Thiel is the International and General Partner, and Osama Usman leads the investment function as the CFA charterholding Investment Lead, handling deal execution and portfolio support.

Deal flow originates from the founding team's deep domestic network — Warraich had been syndicating personal venture checks in Pakistan since 2016 — coupled with referrals from diaspora founders and local accelerators. The firm's full-time presence in Lahore gives it early visibility into technology businesses emerging from Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad.

It is structured as an institutional venture capital firm, not a family office. Fund I closed in 2019 at $25m with commitments from the IFC, diaspora Pakistani HNWIs, and European private investors, all commingled in a blind-pool venture fund rather than a single-family balance sheet.

The firm focuses on seed and early-stage rounds. Portfolio companies such as Bykea, ABHI, and Dawaai received capital at the venture and early-growth stages, targeting technology-enabled businesses that have demonstrated product-market fit and are ready to scale across Pakistan.

Sarmayacar executes direct equity investments into operating companies, not fund-of-fund commitments. The firm's model relies on building concentrated, board-level relationships with a portfolio of roughly two dozen Pakistani and diaspora-founded ventures.

There is no published exclusion list, but the firm's portfolio reveals a heavy concentration on tech-enabled business models in large, fragmented domestic markets — fintech, logistics, healthcare, and entertainment. Traditional brick-and-mortar industries, commodities, and heavy manufacturing are absent from the disclosed portfolio.

Sarmayacar has syndicated rounds alongside both local and international co-investors, as seen in portfolio companies like ABHI (which later gained Hub71 and Mastercard Start Path backing). However, the firm does not market a formal co-investment program, and most rounds appear to be led or structured directly by Sarmayacar.