ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan-based business-to-business marketplace, Bazaar, has raised $30 million in the largest Series A funding round in the South Asian country, the company said on Tuesday.
Currently, Bazaar’s business-to-business marketplace is available in Karachi and Lahore, while its Easy Khata service is live across the country.
Pakistan has roughly five million micro, small, and medium-sized businesses, but most of them are not connected, according to Bazaar founders Hamza Jawaid and Saad Jangda.
The new financing round was led by Silicon Valley-based early-stage VC Defy Partners and Singapore-based Wavemaker Partners. Other investors participating in the round included Antler, Careem, Endeavor, Gumroad, LinkedIn, Acrew Capital, Japan’s Saison Capital, UAE’s Zayn Capital, B&Y Venture Partners, Indus Valley Capital, Global Founders Capital, Next Billion Ventures, and Alter Global.
“We’ve been investing in FMCG (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods) B2B marketplaces across the region since 2017. After working with Hamza and Saad over the past year, we’ve been impressed by their customer-centric approach to product development and the speed of their learning and execution,” Paul Santos, managing partner at Wavemaker Partners, said in a statement.
“It’s no surprise that they’ve received glowing reviews from their customers and partners. We’re excited to support Bazaar as they solidify their market leadership and digitize Pakistan’s retail ecosystem.”
The one-year-old start-up, which is also helping merchants digitize their bookkeeping, is a mix of India’s Udaan B2B marketplace and Khatabook digital ledger.
“That’s a good way to describe us. We had this benefit of hindsight to not just look at India but other emerging markets,” Bazaar co-founder Hamza Jawaid told TechCrunch in an interview.
“We saw lots of synergies between these two. If you look at commerce, you have to acquire every single merchant in every single category differently. Whereas with Khata, merchants in any city and category can download it. So effectively, it’s a great customer acquisition tool for you.”
Pakistan, the world’s fifth-most populous nation, has a booming $170 billion retail market that has yet to see much technological deployment, Jangda said.
Jawaid and Jangda have known each other since childhood and reconnected in Dubai a few years ago, the TechCrunch report said. At the time, Jawaid was at McKinsey & Company and Jangda was working with Careem as a product manager for ride-hailing and food delivery products.
The startup says it has amassed over 750,000 merchants since its launch last year, with a 90 percent retention rate.
Asked if he plans to expand to the ‘dukaan (shop)’ category as several Asian startups are currently building tools to help merchants accept digital orders, Jangda said: “The B2C (business-to-customer) market is still developing, so there is not so much demand from the consumer side yet.”
Instead, Bazaar is currently focused on financial services. In recent months, the startup said it had tested a buy-now-pay-later product and early results had shown a 100 percent repayment.
Bazaar raises $30 million in one of Pakistan’s largest fundraisings by early-stage startup
https://arab.news/cgkyx
Bazaar raises $30 million in one of Pakistan’s largest fundraisings by early-stage startup
- Business-to-business marketplace has amassed over 750,000 merchants since l last year with 90 percent retention rate
- Pakistan, world’s fifth-most populous nation, has $170 billion retail market that has yet to see technological deployment
Punjab expands Pakistan-India Wagah border arena with museum, partition-themed park
- The border crossing, near eastern city of Lahore, is the primary land route between Pakistan and India and one of the most recognizable symbols of their often-tense relations
- The site is best known for its daily flag-lowering ceremony, a choreographed military ritual performed by border forces from both countries that draws thousands of spectators
ISLAMABAD: Maryam Nawaz, chief minister of Pakistan’s Punjab province, on Thursday inaugurated the newly constructed arena at Wagah border cross between Pakistan and India, which includes a museum and a partition themed park.
The Wagah border crossing, located near the eastern city of Lahore, is the primary land route between Pakistan and India and one of the most recognizable symbols of the often-tense relationship between the two neighbors. It serves as a key point for prisoner exchanges and limited movement of travelers, while remaining tightly regulated due to security considerations.
The site is best known for its daily flag-lowering ceremony, a choreographed military ritual performed by border forces from both countries that draws thousands of spectators. Over the years, the ceremony has evolved into a popular tourist attraction, blending displays of nationalism with public spectacle and making it one of Pakistan’s most visited landmarks, which connects with India’s Attari.
Flanked by military officials, CM Nawaz visited the crossing and inaugurated the new arena, with its seating capacity increased from 7,500 to 25,000 spectators, the state-run Radio Pakistan broadcaster reported. The chief minister also visited the martyrs’ monument and offered her respects.
“In addition to the arena’s expansion, several new constructions have been added at the Joint Check Post Wagah. These new developments include a theme park depicting the partition of the Subcontinent, featuring models of a railway station, military equipment and a Martyrs’ Memorial,” the broadcaster reported.
“A Pakistan Museum has also been established within the arena, showcasing the country’s history and culture from the Freedom Movement to the present day.”
In August 1947, Britain divided the Indian Sub-continent, its former colony, into two countries — Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
Excitement over independence was quickly overshadowed by some of the worst bloodletting that left up to 1 million people dead as gangs of Hindus and Muslims slaughtered each other.
Creating two independent nations also tore apart millions of Hindu and Muslim families in one of the world’s largest peacetime migrations, which displaced at least 15 million people.
The fate of Kashmir, then a princely state, was left undecided. The Himalayan territory continues to remain a flashpoint in relations between the neighbors, who have fought multiple wars over it.
