Roshni Rides AcquiHires Talent from NextGenI to scale its operations
Roshni Rides, a leading Pakistani carpooling startup and a former winner of prestigious Hult prize competition has recently acquihired talent from NextGenI, a consulting firm that specializes in building technology product teams for clients in Western Europe, GCC and Pakistan.
Roshni Rides is an ideal solution for individuals, children, and enterprises looking for a safe, affordable, and reliable daily commute. The startup specifically targets women and children who are most affected by the mobility problem in Pakistan.
Announced in a closed event, NextGenI’s Founder, Farzal Dojki signed the agreement with the co-founder and CPO of Roshni Rides, Moneeb Mian with numbers remaining undisclosed.
While talking to bloggers, Farzal said that “With Software Engineers in GCC costing between US$ 50,000 to $150,000 annually, Pakistan offers both talent arbitrage and cost arbitrage for scaling product engineering teams, generally resulting in about one-third cost and 2x speed”.
He also mentioned that “We operate on an acquihire model - we build a dual-shore tech team in 4 to 12 weeks, assign a potential CTO and run the team for 12 to 36 months until Series A or Series B; this triggers acquihire & transfers running of the team to the principal. We have now executed 4 such acquihires since 2015, and currently, operate teams for 8 Seed-stage startups”.
Roshni Rides Co-Founder and CPO, Moneeb Mian, also shared his experience working with the Next GenI team. He highlighted that "Working with the NGI team was a great experience. The professionalism and enthusiasm for our product shown by the team we worked with, is what led us to acquihiring this talent.”
During the event, we also had a chance to talk to the CEO of Roshni Rides, Gia Farooqi, who seemed excited to bring the talent from the NextGenI and is now looking to continue to build a strong in-house engineering team. "We are nearly breaking even on 80% of our fleet. It's this laser focus on product quality, the right team to execute, and a niche target market that will make Roshni Rides a lasting player in this competitive market,” Farooqi explained.
From an industry perspective, this is a really positive development for future founders and investors looking at Pakistan as a hub for high tech talent. Just over the course of the last three years, Pakistan became home to Unicorns like Affinity, Careem and KeepTruckin.