Pakistan's Airlift raises $85m Series B
Airlift, a Pakistani last-mile delivery app, has raised an $85 million Series B round in what is being called the largest-ever start-up investment in Pakistan and the Middle East and North Africa region.
Airlift stressed the investment’s significance as a signal of Pakistan’s rising profile as a technology development and investment destination, noting it was about twice the size of the largest private company IPO in Pakistan and represented 5% of the country’s foreign direct investment (FDI) for fiscal 2021.
The round was led by serial entrepreneurs and angel investors Josh Buckley and Harry Stebbings. US-based Buckley raised $50 million for a fund called Buckley Ventures in 2019 and reportedly raised $100 million for a follow-up targeting $150 million last year.
UK-based Stebbings is best known as the host of venture capital podcast 20VC, who raised $140 million in June for a fund under the same name. Stebbings also founded a VC firm called Stride in 2017.
Additional support came from US-based Quiet Capital, Sam Altman, formerly president of Y Combinator, Seve Pagliuca, co-chairman of Bain Capital, and Aatif Awan, founder of Pakistan’s Indus Valley Capital. They were supported by Biz Stone (co-founder of Twitter and Medium), Jeffrey Katzenberg (ex-CEO of Disney), and Taavet Hinrikus (founder and CEO of TransferWise).
Airlift raised a $12 million Series A in 2019 led by US-based First Round Capital. This was said to be Pakistan’s largest-yet Series A and the first time a US VC firm had led an investment in the country. Indus Valley and fellow local investor Fatima Ventures also participated.
A Series A extension of $10 million was raised last year, with Quiet Capital taking the lead. First Round, Fatima, Indus Valley, TrueSight Ventures, Ace Capital, and Shorooq Investments also took part. Earlier investors include local VC firm Walled City and China’s Gobi Partners, which launched a $20 million Pakistan fund in partnership with Fatima in 2019.
Airlift was founded in 2019 as a bus-hailing app and switched to last-mile grocery delivery the following year. It claims to provide doorstep delivery within 30 minutes for all household essentials – including basic appliances and sports equipment – from a network of dark stores.
Within 12 months of launch, the service became available in eight cities across Pakistan. The fresh capital will be used to expand this footprint to international markets.
“This financing round lays the foundations of a new dawn in Pakistan where technology start-ups alone can contribute to more than 10% of FDI in the upcoming years,” Airlift said in a statement.
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