LAAM Technologies and its business to business platform Octane have been named to the Forbes Asia 100 to Watch 2026 list, making LAAM Pakistan’s only e-commerce company featured on this year’s edition of the list. The recognition places the company among a group of one hundred private, small cap businesses across the Asia Pacific region identified as scaling proprietary technology or solving systemic operational inefficiencies within their respective markets.
Headquartered in Lahore and cofounded by brothers Arif and Amir Iqbal, LAAM Technologies operates as an online fashion marketplace selling more than one thousand five hundred South Asian brands of garments, jewelry, and cosmetics to customers across Pakistan, the Middle East, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In January, the company held a fashion week in Lahore showcasing thirty seven Pakistani brands, reflecting its continued effort to build a bridge between South Asian fashion talent and international consumer markets.
Beyond its consumer facing online shop, LAAM also operates Octane, a business to business platform that helps fashion brands sell their products across multiple online platforms and expand internationally. This dual structure, combining a direct to consumer marketplace with a B2B enablement tool for brands, positions LAAM within a segment of e-commerce infrastructure companies increasingly recognised on this year’s Forbes Asia list, which saw a broader shift toward enterprise technology and B2B solutions compared to previous editions.
LAAM raised a five point five million dollar seed round in December 2024, led by UAE based Disrupt.com and Pakistan’s Zayn VC, providing capital that has supported the company’s continued growth across the markets it serves. This year’s Forbes Asia 100 to Watch list reflects strong investor confidence more broadly, with the one hundred companies featured having raised a combined total of more than two point four billion dollars to date, including close to one billion dollars raised specifically in 2026.
According to Forbes Asia, this year’s sixth annual list continues to highlight startups and small businesses leading the region’s next wave of innovation, with close to a quarter of this year’s entries operating as enterprise technology firms offering AI related services, alongside a notable rise in robotics companies spanning eldercare support to specialised research automation. LAAM’s inclusion alongside these companies reflects the broader recognition of South Asian fashion and e-commerce as a growing category within the region’s startup landscape, with the company describing the recognition as belonging to the brands, designers, creators, and teams who have built the LAAM ecosystem alongside its founders.
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