What is Tania Aidrus’ Dbank up to now?

On 13 January 2023, after a wait of nine months, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) finally unveiled the five successful applicants authorised to establish long-awaited digital banks. The list of applicants shortlisted for a digital banking licence included Easy Paisa DB, Hugo Bank, KT Bank, Mashreq Bank and Raqami.

However, something did not sound right. To many onlookers' shock, the application of the most prominent venture capital-backed contender in the race Dbank’s name was nowhere to be found in the list. Former special assistant to the prime minister (SAPM) Tania Aidrus and her cofounder Khurram Jamali’s Dbank, backed by prominent Silicon Valley VC firms Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia, had seemingly been one of the top contenders for the licence. Why would the SBP reject them? Silence echoed at Dbank’s headquarters in Islamabad.

To understand how we got to this point, let us start from the beginning. Specifically, one woman's beginning: Tania Aidrus.

Tania Aidrus’ vision

After working for 10 years at Google, first as the Country Manager for South Asia Emerging Markets and then as the Director of Product and Payments for Next Billion Users, Tania Aidrus returned to her home country in 2019 with a mission – to digitise Pakistan. She planned to achieve this goal through a collaboration with the government, so she joined as an SAPM in the then prime minister Imran Khan's office, under the PM’s Digital Pakistan Initiative in February 2020. In her efforts to digitise Pakistan, she popularised the infamous slogan ‘Roti, Kapra, Makan aur Internet’. 

Unfortunately, Aidrus’s plans to digitise Pakistan did not pan out as she expected. Problems had started soon after Jehangir Tareen, who arranged the first meeting between Aidrus and Khan, was ousted from Khan’s political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) due to the sugar crisis probe. In July 2020, Aidrus gave up her position as the SAPM. The reason cited for the resignation, according to Aidrus, was criticism regarding her dual nationality, explaining that it was overshadowing the goals of Digital Pakistan. 

So, Aidrus gave up on roti, kapra and makan, zeroing her focus on just the internet. In December 2020, she co-founded a technology advisory and investment company called the Rayn Group.