STARTUP WATCH- Swvl plans to invest USD 25 mn in Pakistan to fund pre-seed startups, Pakistani outlet Samaa reports. The mass transit company now intends to launch an incubator that will create 10k jobs a year and impact half a mn Pakistanis by 2023. The announcement was made at a Pakistani entrepreneurship conference, 021Disrupt.

This is part of Swvl’s rapid expansion plans: Swvl’s expansion within Pakistan is part of an ambitious growth strategy that has seen it target and raise record amounts of funding, and eye several new markets this year. The company launched in Lahore in August, and quickly expanded to the capital, Islamabad, and Karachi. In June, Swvl announced its plans to launch 50 buses in Lagos by mid-July, and entered Kenya earlier this year in what now may become an ill-fated venture. As of mid-September, it was also eyeing expansion into Manila in 1H2020, and some 10 or 20 new cities next year, with Dar es Salaam and Abidjan being of particular interest, as well as markets in South East Asia.