Bazaar, a startup that started eight months back has raised a total of $7.8 million to date
Pakistani Business to Business (B2B) e-commerce startup Bazaar raised $6.5 million in one of the region’s largest seed rounds. The app, which takes retail businesses to the digital world, raised the largest ever seed round in Pakistan’s history and the second-highest in the Middle East and North Africa. The app connects small grocery shops, also referred to as kiryana shops to order inventory from manufacturers, suppliers, and wholesalers with ease. Deliveries are made the next day.
The seed round was co-led by Berlin-based Global Founders Capital along with Pakistan-focused VC Indus Valley Capital. This is Berlin-based Company’s first investment in Pakistan. Bazaar has so far raised $7.8 million in funding.
Bazaar has also benefitted from a large group of diverse investors. These include 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.
The app aimed at recruiting 800 retailers in 2020, a target it surpassed by more than 10 folds with 10,000 retail outlets associated with it. The Managing Partner at Indus Valley Capital Aatif Awan said that the 2020 targets were ambitious but the results crushed those goals big time.
“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.”
There is a lot of space for new players in the e-commerce scene in Pakistan. The success of Bazaar should inspire other aspiring entrepreneurs to take up similar ventures and deliver results. This is excellent both for the e-commerce industry as well as the economy of Pakistan.