Karachi-based Bazaar Technologies raises $30mn in Series A round

In yet another development for Pakistan's startup ecosystem, Karachi-based Bazaar Technologies, a business-to-business ecommerce platform, has announced that it has secured $30 million in Series A financing.

The financing round, the largest Series A in Pakistani startup history, was led by US-based VC Defy Partners and Singapore-based Wavemaker Partners, reported TechCrunch on Tuesday.

Bazaar is a B2B eCommerce platform serving small merchants in Pakistan. As per the information available on the company’s website, Bazaar serves over 750,000 merchants and has a reach in over 400 towns across the country.

As per the report, Bazaar is focused on the financial services sector, and plans to use the freshly-acquired funds to expand its services to more cities across the country and cater to more products.

Based on the H1 2021 Emerging Venture Markets (EVM) E-commerce Venture Investment Report by Magnitt, in the first half (H1) of 2021, Pakistani E-commerce startups raised double the capital they did in FY 2020, accounting for 17% of funding deployed across EVMs.

Amongst Emerging Venture Markets, Pakistan was the only one to see a YoY increase in E-commerce deals in H1 2021.

Just days ago, Airlift also announced it has secured $85 million in the largest Series B financing in Pakistan’s startup history.

Logistics solutions: Airlift announces $85m Series B financing

The Series B financing for Airlift was led by Josh Buckley (Buckley Ventures) and Harry Stebbings (20VC). Other major participants included Sam Altman (ex-President YCombinator), Biz Stone (Co-founder at Twitter / Medium), Jeffrey Katzenberg (ex-CEO, Disney), Taavet Hinrikus (Founder/CEO at TransferWise), and Seve Pagliuca (Co-Chairman, Bain Capital).

The financing is about twice the size of the largest private company IPO in Pakistan’s history and the highest in the MENA region, bringing a number of implications for the country.

Prime Minister Imran Khan also welcomed the investment in Airlift, saying that Pakistan has huge potential. In a tweet post, he added that the government is fully committed to creating opportunities.