Nepal’s IT service exports crossed an estimated $1 billion in 2025 — more than doubled in three years. The Government’s target is Rs 3 trillion (~$22 billion) by 2034. The January 2025 FITTA ordinance eliminated the minimum capital threshold for IT-sector foreign investment entirely. Nepal-founded CloudFactory has served over 700 global clients in human-in-the-loop AI. The commercial story is no longer whether the sector exists; it is the visible inflection of an established billion-dollar export economy.
Estimated IT service exports 2025
NAS-IT / industry estimate
Government 2034 target (Rs 3 trillion)
Ministry of Communication & IT
IT minimum capital threshold — FITTA 2025 ordinance
Government of Nepal, January 2025
Global clients served by Nepal-founded CloudFactory
CloudFactory
Nepal’s technology services export is the fastest-growing sector of the economy. Industry estimates from the Nepal Association of Software and IT Services Companies place 2025 service exports at approximately $1 billion — more than double the 2022 figure. The Government’s target is Rs 3 trillion (~$22 billion) by 2034. The Kathmandu Valley is the principal delivery hub for offshore work to North American, European, and Australian clients, hosting an established technology workforce that has scaled in line with the export trajectory.
The January 2025 Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act ordinance reset the regulatory perimeter. The minimum capital threshold for IT-sector foreign investment was reduced to zero. One hundred percent foreign ownership is confirmed across IT activities including software development, IT-enabled services, business process management, data centres, and cloud infrastructure. Automatic-route approval allows investments up to NPR 500 million to proceed without ministerial review. The National AI Policy, approved by the Council of Ministers in early 2025, provides the regulatory sandbox and data-localisation framework that institutional AI infrastructure investment requires.
Nepal’s technology sector has crossed the institutional visibility threshold — a $1 billion export economy, the most permissive IT-sector FDI regime in Nepal’s history under FITTA 2025, a National AI Policy framework, and an institutional 2034 target of Rs 3 trillion. CloudFactory — the Nepal-founded human-in-the-loop AI services firm with over 700 enterprise clients — demonstrates that the Nepal workforce can deliver enterprise-grade AI services at global scale. Nepal.com is the platform that translates this commercial moment into the operational language of technology operator, AI infrastructure, and fintech capital.
The supply layer is built. Kathmandu Valley hosts a deep technology workforce with a steady annual flow of engineering and computer-science graduates from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu University, and a growing tier of private institutions. The pool is English-proficient and time-zone-advantaged for European client delivery; labour costs are materially below comparable South Asian markets. The sector hosts a deep bench of multinational R&D centres and indigenous IT services firms operating across software development, healthcare informatics, AI/ML, fintech, and cybersecurity. The diaspora dimension is the second arc — Nepali technology professionals concentrate in Silicon Valley, Seattle, Bangalore, and Singapore, with diaspora-led firms increasingly operating hub-and-spoke models that connect US commercial leadership with Nepal-based engineering scale.
The institutional architecture is in place. FITTA 2025 plus the National AI Policy 2025 plus the institutional Rs 3 trillion 2034 target compose Nepal’s coordinated regulatory anchor for a sector making the transition from cottage industry to platform export. The South Asian comparators — India’s STPI scheme, the Philippines’ IT-BPM regime, Vietnam’s digital-economy framework — are the reference set. Nepal’s combination of zero minimum capital, 100% foreign ownership, and automatic-route approvals is materially more permissive than India’s comparable IT-sector FDI regime on practical deal-execution friction.
Three institutional catalysts converge: the FITTA 2025 ordinance establishing the most permissive IT-sector FDI regime in Nepal’s history (zero minimum capital, 100% foreign ownership, automatic-route approvals to NPR 500 million); the National AI Policy 2025 providing the regulatory sandbox and data-localisation framework for institutional AI infrastructure; and the institutional Rs 3 trillion 2034 target anchoring the sector trajectory. Capital deployed before Nepal’s 24 November 2026 LDC graduation captures the pre-graduation cost basis for the Nepal services economy across multi-decade technology asset operating life.
IT exports 2025
~$1B
2034 target
Rs 3T / $22B
Working IT professionals
70,000+
IT minimum capital
Zero (FITTA 2025)
Foreign ownership
100%
Automatic route
≤ NPR 500M
Business Analysis
Available to qualified partners
Zero IT minimum capital + 100% foreign ownership + automatic-route approval up to NPR 500M. The pre-graduation window for foreign technology operator entry is open until 24 Nov 2026.
Sector Intelligence Briefings available to qualified partners.