Pakistan ride hailing and courier app secures Series A

Founded in Karachi in 2016, Bykea operates a marketplace for customers to hire motorbike drivers for personal transportation or package delivery. The platform also allows drivers to process payments for e-commerce deliveries. Over 200,000 drivers have installed the app, and Bykea claims to handle a million bookings per month in four cities.

Bykea will use the new capital to grow its user base through marketing and by expanding its app to feature phones and other less advanced technology mediums. The company seeks to position its platform as a tool for urban residents to facilitate their personal and business lives.

“After regularly visiting Pakistan over the past three years, the tremendous potential of the country is obvious to me,” Singapore-based angel investor Jonas Eichhorst, who participated in the transaction and will join the company’s board, said in a statement. “Bykea and its team are not only in a great position to play a leading role in advancing the nascent startup sector, but can also become a local champion within the overall economy, similar to GoJek's tremendous success in Indonesia.”

Investor interest in Pakistan has persisted despite ongoing security issues and tensions with India, with the country representing almost half of all PE investment in South Asia ex-India for 2007-2017. Earlier this year Gobi Partners launched a $20 million fund focused on the country alongside Fatima Ventures, the corporate VC arm of Pakistani conglomerate Fatima Group.

Sarmayacar is based in the Netherlands and closed its debut fund last year at $30 million. The vehicle targets early-stage investments in promising Pakistani technology companies, investing $100,000 to $2 million per transaction. Its portfolio includes music streaming service Patari, pharmaceutical security start-up ProCheck, and online payment system SimPaisa.

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• Topics
• South Asia
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• Early-stage
• Pakistan
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