ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani startup providing financial and logistics solutions to online merchants is set to launch its services in Saudi Arabia and the entire United Arab Emirates in the coming week after successfully launching a pilot project in Dubai earlier this year, a top company official confirmed on Saturday.
Founded in 2020, PostEx provides a hybrid solution combining receivables factoring and courier services, offering upfront payment for invoice values to e-commerce companies using cash on delivery as a payment option.
According to one of its cofounders, PostEx surpassed an annual recurring revenue of $21 million last year, reached profitability and is currently handling over four million transactions every month.
In 2022, PostEx acquired a Pakistani logistics service named Call Courier, which enabled the startup to expand its presence from three major markets to over 650 cities in a single step.
“As soon as we launched our pilot project with minimum viable product (MVP) services about one and half months back in Dubai, more than 3,500 stores were registered, which showed that the response is quite massive over there,” Babar Razzaq, the company’s cofounder and chief technology officer, told Arab News.
“The same merchandise also has footprints in Saudi Arabia and they are also waiting for us to be there,” he continued. “So, we will be launching our full range of products next week in both the kingdom and the entire UAE.”
Asked about the company’s strategy during the pilot project, Razzaq said the full product is yet to be launched, as only some of its features had been introduced earlier to gauge the market response.
“MVP included order management solution, inventory solution and warehouse management solution,” he explained. “Now we are working on launching our main feature of financial solution.”
The PostEx official added Saudi Arabia was a vast market with great potential, hoping his company would be able to tap more opportunities by providing better financial solutions.
“We will be leading there just like Pakistan very soon,” he said.
Razzaq said PostEx had raised $7.3 million this month in an all-equity funding round led by Dubai-based Conjunction Capital to plan its market expansion into Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
“The $7.3 million raised is designated for expanding into Saudi Arabia and the UAE, with plans to invest heavily in these markets, where significant capital is needed for lending to e-commerce players,” he continued.
He noted that online merchants in Pakistan faced growth challenges and working capital issues due to the 10- to 15-day delay in settling cash-on-delivery transactions.
“We addressed their financial issues by offering upfront payment equivalent to the retail price of their product,” he informed.
Before the pre-Series A round, Razzaq mentioned that PostEx had secured $8.6 million from investors such as Global Founder Capital, MSA Capital, and Shorooq Partners in 2021.
Pakistani startup to launch financial and logistics services in Saudi Arabia and UAE next week
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Pakistani startup to launch financial and logistics services in Saudi Arabia and UAE next week
- Founded in 2020, PostEx secured $7.3 million funding to expand its footprint in the Middle Eastern market
- Earlier, it managed a successful pilot project in Dubai where more than 3,500 stores registered with it
Bodies of Pakistani nationals who died attempting illegal migration repatriated from Iran
- Pakistan’s envoy in Tehran warns youth against human smugglers after deaths in harsh weather
- Pakistan reported sharp fall in illegal migration to Europe this year amid nationwide crackdown
ISLAMABAD: The bodies of two Pakistani nationals, who died near the Iran-Türkiye border after attempting to travel illegally to Europe, have been repatriated to the country, said a senior diplomat on Tuesday, reiterating warnings against human smugglers amid an intensified crackdown by authorities in Islamabad on illegal migration.
Pakistan says it has stepped up action against illegal immigration and human trafficking in recent years, reporting a 47% drop in illegal migration to Europe this year and the arrest of more than 1,700 suspected human smugglers, according to official figures.
However, people continue to attempt dangerous irregular journeys in search of work and better economic opportunities abroad.
“The mortal remains of Pakistani nationals Mr. Armanullah s/o Gul Rahman and Mr. Ihtasham s/o Mukhtar Gul, both residents of Nowshera, have been repatriated to Pakistan through Taftan border earlier today,” Pakistan’s ambassador to Iran, Muhammad Mudassir Tipu, said in a post on social media platform X. “Both had fallen victim to the greed of human smugglers and lost their lives in extremely harsh weather conditions near Iran’s border with Turkiye.”
“I once again request the youth back home not to be trapped by human smugglers and instead follow the legal path to travel abroad,” he added, thanking the government of the Balochistan province in Pakistan for arranging the transportation of the bodies and offering condolences to the victims’ families.
The issue illegal immigration has drawn heightened scrutiny since 2023, when hundreds of people, including Pakistani nationals, died attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea in an overcrowded vessel that sank off the Greek coast, prompting Islamabad to launch nationwide investigations into human smuggling and trafficking networks.
Authorities have since arrested Pakistani and foreign nationals at airports with forged travel documents, highlighting the scale of document fraud linked to illegal departures.
In September, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) released a list of more than 100 of Pakistan’s “most wanted” human smugglers and identified major trafficking hubs across Punjab province and the capital, Islamabad.
Earlier this month, Pakistan announced plans to roll out an artificial intelligence-based immigration screening system at Islamabad airport from January, aimed at detecting forged documents and preventing illegal travel abroad, as part of broader efforts to curb human smuggling and unauthorized migration.
