An American AI startup has quietly made Lahore one of its core engineering hubs, and it did so almost by accident.
Nectar Social, founded by sisters Misbah and Farah Uraizee, raised $30 million in Series A funding, and its Pakistani engineers now build technology powering more than 10 million brand conversations every week. Misbah, who serves as chief executive, said the company never set out with a Pakistan strategy, expanding organically after discovering the engineering talent here and finding it easier to operate than outsiders assume.
The company itself sits in a fashionable corner of AI. Nectar Social is an agentic operating system for marketers, using autonomous AI agents to handle social listening, community management, and conversational commerce across TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit.
Data partnerships with Meta and Reddit let its agents pool information into one place, replacing the tangle of separate tools brands usually juggle. Clients include Liquid Death, Figma, and e.l.f. Beauty.
The founders bring real pedigree, since both sisters previously worked at Meta before exiting stealth with Nectar last year. Menlo Ventures led the round through its Anthology Fund, created alongside Anthropic, with GV, True Ventures, and Gwyneth Paltrow’s Kinship Ventures joining.
Engineers in Lahore work on the same AI products, codebase, and production systems as colleagues in Silicon Valley and New York. Misbah said the company invests where it finds the strongest engineering returns, and Pakistan has consistently justified more.
She is candid about the structure, though. Senior engineering and product leadership stays concentrated in the Bay Area, which she frames as intentional, developing early-career Pakistani engineers into future leaders over time.
Misbah said money alone will not build Pakistan’s AI ecosystem, since exposure to high engineering standards, mentors, and production-scale software creates lasting value that attracts investment afterward. She sees Pakistan’s realistic near-term path as becoming a global AI talent hub, which needs predictable regulation, stronger IP protection, and tax policies that keep engineers home.
