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
Pakistan improves water management but remains highly vulnerable to floods, shortages — report
- Asian Water Development Outlook says national water security score up 6.4 points since 2013 but service delivery still weak
- ADB-linked report warns that groundwater dependence, urban demand and ecosystem decline remain critical risks
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has strengthened its water governance and planning capacity over the past decade but continues to face serious risk from climate shocks, declining freshwater availability and weak service provision, according to the Asian Water Development Outlook 2025.
The regional water security assessment linked to the Asian Development Bank evaluates countries across Asia on water supply, governance, climate resilience, urban systems and environmental health.
The study found that Pakistan has made policy progress since 2013, yet implementation remains inconsistent and the country is still exposed to extreme weather events, rapid population growth and stressed aquifers. The assessment warns that improvement has not kept pace with risk.
“Pakistan’s national water security score improved moderately from 2013 to 2025 by 6.4 points. At the same time, water governance performance, measured through SDG 6.5.1, rose from 50 percent in 2017 to 63 percent in 2023,” the report said.
Despite these gains, rural supply and service reliability remain uneven.
“Pakistan’s rural household water security remains under pressure due to ineffective service models, limited surveillance, and persistent contamination,” while economic performance is hampered by “falling per capita water availability, insufficient storage, and heavy reliance on poorly monitored groundwater resources for industrial activity,” according to the report.
Pakistan’s cities remain under pressure, with infrastructure struggling to match population growth and demand:
“Urban water security has shown only modest gains, with rising demand, untreated wastewater and urban flooding straining infrastructure and service delivery.”
Environmental conditions have also deteriorated, driven by unchecked industrial discharge and limited regulatory enforcement.
“Environmental water security has declined slightly, as rapid population growth, industrial activity, and untreated wastewater continue to degrade aquatic ecosystems,” the report added.
Pakistan remains highly exposed to disasters including major floods, droughts and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). The report cites the 2022 monsoon crisis, noting that it “affected over 24 million people.”
While early-warning systems are improving, infrastructure investment and coordinated management remain inadequate.
The document concludes that Pakistan must convert policy gains into ground-level delivery by expanding financing, strengthening provincial coordination and scaling ecosystem protection to stabilize long-term water security.
