Pakistan’s logistics startup Rider says it has raised $3.1mn

Pakistan’s logistics startup Rider on Monday announced that it has raised $3.1 million in a funding round led by various investors, taking the combined funding raised since September 2021 to $5.4 million.

The funding round was led by YCombinator and new investors including i2i Ventures, Flexport, Soma Capital, and Rebel Fund. The round also included existing investors such as Global Founders Capital, Fatima Gobi Ventures (FGV), and TPL E-ventures along with the notable angel investor; Arash Ferdowsi (Co-Founder Dropbox), the company informed in a statement.

Founded in 2019 by Salman Allana, previously head of strategy and business development at UPS Pakistan and assistant vice president at Citibank, the Karachi-based B2B2C company announced last year that it has raised $2.3 million in a pre-seed round.

Since then, the company says that its monthly revenues have grown by 110% and their customer base has doubled to 650 online sellers. "Rider has now successfully completed the delivery of over 3 million parcels across 60 cities in Pakistan," it said in the statement.

"Rider has been building a network of sorting hubs, urban delivery centers, and a digitised fleet, offering online sellers in Pakistan a next-day ‘Amazon-like’ delivery service. The Rider platform offers route optimization for delivery agents, live tracking and scheduling for buyers, and a highly digitized warehousing function for sellers," the statement added.

Allana said Rider was launched because traditional courier companies in Pakistan were not set up to serve the e-commerce market and "were failing to capture the online buying trend".

“Rider has plans to enhance the e-commerce marketplace in Pakistan with solutions and infrastructure beyond logistics,” he said.

Pakistan’s startup sector witnessed its best year in 2021, as 81 deals worth $350 million were announced. The amount raised was more than 5x of what was raised in 2020 i.e. $65 million.

In 2022, the startup sector has continued its momentum despite various hiccups. During the first quarter, startups raised a substantial $163 million, according to a Deal Flow Tracker by Invest2Innovate.

Last week, Dastgyr, a Pakistan-based B2B e-commerce marketplace platform, raised $37mn in a Series A investment round led by Veon Ventures.

However, things have been bumpy as well recently: Swvl announced it is suspending its intra-city services “in light of the global economic downturn” and Airlift said it's slashing its global headcount by 31%. Logistics startup Truck It In also announced layoffs.