Bazaar secures Pakistan's largest-ever Series A round
Online B2B marketplace Bazaar has completed what it claims is Pakistan’s largest-ever Series A round with a $30 million commitment led by Wavemaker Partners and US-based Defy Partners.
Other investors include Acrew Capital, Global Founders Capital, Saison Capital, Zayn Capital, BY Venture Partners, Indus Valley Capital, Next Billion Ventures, and Alter Global, the company said in a LinkedIn post.
According to AVCJ Research’s records, the company received $1.3 million in pre-seed funding from Indus Valley in 2020 and a $6.5 million seed round from Indus Valley and Global Founders Capital in January of this year.
Bazaar is the largest platform for small merchants in Pakistan, serving more than 750,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across over 400 towns. There are around five million SMEs nationwide.
The company operates an e-commerce marketplace through which merchants can stock up on inventory from a catalogue of more than 1,000 product lines, with next-day delivery guaranteed for orders posted before midnight. The marketplace offers discounted prices by buying in bulk. There is an accompanying digital ledger that helps SMEs with cash management.
Hamza Jawaid, co-founder of Bazaar, told Techcrunch that his company could be viewed as a hybrid of India-based Udaan and Khatabook – the former is an SME-focused B2B marketplace and the latter is a bookkeeping app. Both have raised several rounds of venture capital funding.
“We saw lots of synergies between these two. If you look at commerce, you have to acquire every single merchant in every single category differently. Whereas with Khata, merchants in any city and category can download it. So effectively, it’s a great customer acquisition tool for you,” Jawaid said, in a report referenced in Bazaar’s LinkedIn post.
Earlier this month, last-mile delivery app Airlift secured $85 million in Series B funding – said to be the largest-ever start-up investment in Pakistan. The company raised a $19 million Series A round in 2019. Last year, ride-hailing and courier business Bykea closed a $12 million Series B.
Local GP Indus Valley closed its debut fund at $17.5 million in March. It is an investor in Airlift as well as in Bazaar.
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