(Bloomberg) -- Pakistan is getting the first venture-capital fund denominated in local currency in seven years, with Sai Venture Capital Pvt. launching one to target the country’s fledgling tech industry and other startups.

The Lahore-based company seeks $10 million from mainly local investors, co-founder Ahsan Jamil, 43, said in an interview. The fund is currently 40% committed and received approvals from the country’s securities regulator last month, he said.

An ecosystem doesn’t “develop until you have local smart capital,” Jamil said. It’s important to have local investors as foreign funding has waned, he said.

Pakistan’s young startup industry has raised slightly over $700 million since 2021, according to data from Invest2Innovate, most of it from foreign investors. Its currency has gone through one of its most turbulent times and dropped by more than 40% over the same period, forcing startups to chase “crazy” growth to achieve returns in US dollar terms, Jamil said. In one instance, a startup had to grow 100% to keep foreign investors at breakeven, he said.

Jamil worked in the U.S. for two decades at companies including Aon Hewitt LLC, now Alight Inc., before moving back to Pakistan to launch the fund. Sai, which has already made a few investments over the past year with its partners, targets companies that offer services to enterprises in developed markets as well as startups that focus on health, agriculture and education. It’s the first domestic VC fund since 2016, said Ahmed Uzair, a partner at law firm AUC Law, an adviser to Sai.

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