GoZayaan, the South Asian online travel agency that entered Pakistan through its acquisition of Karachi-based travel-tech startup FindMyAdventure in 2022, has announced it is concluding its operations in the country. The company shared the news through a public statement addressed to its Pakistani user base, confirming that all active bookings will be honoured and directing customers with queries or payment-related concerns to its support team at help@gozayaan.com.
GoZayaan was founded in 2017 with the ambition of shifting the tourism landscape into the digital space, and built its reputation in Bangladesh by recording near ten times growth through 2021 — a period when the global travel industry was at its lowest due to the pandemic. Having raised a total of $8.1 million in seed funding from investors including Wavemaker Partners and Nordstar, the company expanded its services to cover domestic and international flights, hotels, and tour packages across South Asia. Its $2.6 million seed round was led by Wavemaker Partners and joined by Southeast Asia-focused venture capital firms including Ratio Venture, 1982 Ventures, Iterative, and Century Oak Capital, alongside current and former Airbnb executives.
GoZayaan entered Pakistan by acquiring FindMyAdventure, with sources reporting an initial investment of more than $3.5 million in the deal, backed by existing investors Nordstar Partners, DST Global Partner Fund, and Alexander Rittweger. FindMyAdventure, founded by LUMS alumnus Muhammad Komail Abbas, had since 2016 grown from an online adventure tour booking platform into a broader travel marketplace with over 300 hotel partners across Pakistan. The acquisition made GoZayaan the first Bangladeshi travel-tech company to cross international borders, and Komail Naqvi transitioned into the role of Country Managing Director for GoZayaan Pakistan as part of the deal.
The rationale for the Pakistan entry was grounded in market logic, GoZayaan cited the similarity in geography, internet penetration, and user behaviour between Bangladesh and Pakistan as the core reason for the acquisition, noting that together the two countries constitute five percent of the world’s total population. That thesis, while commercially sound in framing, appears not to have translated into the sustained traction needed to maintain operations. GoZayaan’s exit adds to a growing list of well-funded travel-tech ventures that have struggled to reach profitability in Pakistan’s price-sensitive and largely offline travel market, where digital adoption in the sector has moved more slowly than anticipated.
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