By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister for Commerce and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood on Tuesday appreciated e-commerce promoter ‘Bazaar Technologies’ on successfully raising $6.5 million, in what was now being termed as one of the region’s larger seed rounds.
“This is impressive considering the fact that the start-up was founded just 8-months ago by two youngsters at Karachi for digitizing of the traditional retail sector in Pakistan,” the adviser said this on his official twitter account. “I have always believed in the entrepreneurship of our youth and this speaks volumes about their abilities” he said.
The adviser said “I wish them success and urge our young entrepreneurs to emulate this as with a large population base, Pakistan is one of the largest potential e-commerce markets in the world.”
Bazaar, a Pakistan-based B2B ecommerce startup that had launched just eight months ago to digitize traditional retail in Pakistan, has raised $6.5 million in one of the region’s largest seed rounds.The round was co-led by Berlin-based Global Founders Capital which is making its first investment in Pakistan, and Pakistan-focused VC Indus Valley Capital that had also led company’s pre-seed round in June last year.According to MENAbytes data, it is the second-largest seed round ever raised by a startup in the Middle East, North Africa, and the largest in Pakistan. This takes Bazaar’s total raise to date to $7.8 million, making it one of the best-funded startups of the country.
In addition to the lead investors, Bazaar also brought together a diverse mix of leading regional and global institutional and angel investors. Early-stage VC S7V, Singapore-based Wavemaker Partners, Saudi’s Derayah Venture Capital, and US-based Next Billion Ventures participated in the round.The angels that joined the cap table include current and former leaders of Careem, a partner at DST Global (one of the leading late-stage tech investors), and founders of other B2B startups including Cairo-based Maxab, Ula in Indonesia, and Africa’s Sokowatch.
Founded by Saad Jangda and Hamza Jawaid, Bazaar’s mobile-based ecommerce marketplace enables people running neighborhood mom-and-pop grocery stores (locally known as kiryana stores) to purchase the inventory for their stores from manufacturers, wholesalers, and suppliers. “On one end of the marketplace, kiryana owners benefit from Bazaar app’s convenient ordering, reliable delivery and competitive prices. Suppliers, on the other end, through Bazaar get a direct-to-retail channel and are provided actionable insights on purchase patterns and trends,” said the startup explaining its value proposition, in a statement.
Tito Costa, Partner at Global Founders Capital, said, “We are excited to back an extraordinary team in their journey to help millions of small shops in Pakistan digitize their retail business”.
When the two co-founders had started building Bazaar, they had set a target of serving 800 retailers in Karachi by the end of 2020 but they closed the year with over 10,000 retailers, beating their initial targets both in terms of number of users served through the platform and GMV by over 10x.
Aatif Awan, the Managing Partner at Indus Valley Capital, said, “When we invested in Bazaar in May, they set ambitious targets for 2020. They went on to crush those goals by 10x. Indus Valley Capital is thrilled to double down on Bazaar and strengthen our partnership to revolutionize the $150B retail industry in Pakistan.”
