Stablecoin startup ZAR raised $12.9M led by a16z to test USD-backed coins for Pakistan, which the World Bank estimates has the third-largest unbanked population
Andreessen Horowitz is leading funding for a year-old startup that seeks to popularize the use of stablecoins through neighborhood stores …
Context & Ripple Effects
Pakistan’s earlier fintech funding centered on bringing financial tools to people outside conventional banking, including TAG Innovation’s tools for unbanked adults and NayaPay’s multi-service payments app. ZAR extends that inclusion-oriented arc with a USD-backed asset and neighborhood-store distribution model rather than another app-led payments product.
The round also arrives as businesses are raising capital for the infrastructure behind stablecoin payments, including Zerohash’s on-chain services for businesses. That makes ZAR’s test a distribution-side experiment in a market where access is the stated constraint.
First-order effects
- ZAR gains $12.9 million of a16z-led funding to run its Pakistan test, directing its near-term effort toward onboarding and serving users through neighborhood stores.
- Participating stores become the immediate local interface for USD-backed coins, while prospective users gain a physical access point for ZAR’s pilot.
Second-order effects
- Pakistan’s existing fintech and payments providers face a new test of whether store-led distribution and stablecoin-based value transfer can attract users that app-based products have targeted.
- If the rollout creates demand, providers of business-facing on-chain payment infrastructure could have a clearer route to customers serving local merchants, building on Zerohash’s recent infrastructure funding.
Third-order effects
- If neighborhood-store pilots prove repeatable, financial-access products may increasingly compete on offline distribution networks as much as on mobile-app features.
- The case will help determine whether USD-backed stablecoins become a durable access layer for underserved users or remain a niche product alongside established local fintech offerings.
The trend: Stablecoin companies are moving from infrastructure and trading use cases toward merchant-mediated distribution experiments aimed at financially underserved populations.