Amid the assassinations, terrorism, and political instability that have rocked Pakistan in recent months, two U.S. venture capital firms are stepping forward to place bets on a group of social-networking, employment, and classified sites.

ePlanet Ventures is leading a round for Lahore-based Naseeb Networks, whose Rozee.pk site offers listings for Pakistani job seekers and whose Naseeb.com site provides social-networking and classified ads to Pakistanis and Arabs in the diaspora.

Ayaz ul Haque, managing director at ePlanet, who is joining the Naseeb Networks board of directors, was conducting research on Naseeb Networks in Pakistan on December 27 when former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who had escaped injury in an earlier bombing, was assassinated, setting off a string of violent protests around the country.

"I was completing my due diligence there and  I was able to quantify the risk and determine that the individual attributes of the deal made it a compelling investment," he said. "Pakistan is at an outlying point on the political graph. Events are more representative of Pakistan transitioning through an inflection point on its political graph.

"There's a generally negative view of the investment climate in Pakistan," Mr. ul Haque added. "We believe the climate is somewhat transitory."

With about 165 million, Pakistan's economic growth rate was estimated at 6.3 percent in 2007, according to the CIA World Factbook.

As part of the deal, whose terms were not disclosed, Mr. Haque and Mohanjit Jolly, director at DFJ, have joined Naseeb’s board of directors.

Mr. ul Haque, in an interview as he was en route from London to a board meeting in Pakistan, said the planned deployment of WiMax, a wireless broadband service with longer reach than Wi-Fi, is expected to more than double the country's Internet penetration from the current 7.5 percent to 16 percent by 2010.

Monis Raman, a former Intel executive, returned to Pakistan in 2003 to found Naseeb Networks in 2003.

ePlanet, with offices in Silicon Valley, Beijing, Shanhai, Singapore, Bangalore, New Delhi, and London is typically an expansion stage investor. Among its portfolio companies with notable exits are Chinese search engine Baidu, which went public, and Skype, acquired by eBay for about $4 billion.

Naseeb Networks will use the funding to expand its sales force. Flagship site Naseeb.com offers matchmaking, blogging, instant messaging, photo, and music-sharing services.