Pakistan's startup PostEx raises $7.1 million
- Latest funding makes it the second largest investment at this stage in Pakistan
Pakistani startup PostEx has raised an additional $7.1 million, bringing the total capital secured by the company at seed to $8.6m through multiple tranches, the fintech and logistics company announced on Monday.
The Lahore-based startup began in April and helps e-commerce businesses by giving them cash before making deliveries and providing them finance to run their businesses.
In a statement, the startup said that the latest funding makes it the second largest investment at this stage in Pakistan. The statement further said that the extension round was led by Global Founders Capital (GFC) while FJ Labs and RTP Global in Pakistan also participated.
The company will use the funds to expand into 15 to 20 more cities in Pakistan and aims to increase its workforce and launch more fintech products, reported Bloomberg.
Investments in Pakistani startups cross $258m mark
Last month, PostEx had raised $1.5 million in seed funding round led by MSA Capital, an investor in Uber and Klarna among other major tech companies, with participation from the UAE-based Shorooq Partners, Pakistan-focused Zayn Capital, Dubai-headquartered VentureSouq, PNO Ventures, 92Ventures as well as the CEO of Arbisoft, Yasser Bashir.
Founder Muhammad Omer Khan started the venture after discovering that more than 90% of Pakistan’s online shopping is done with post-delivery cash payments and not through electronic transactions.
The majority of the population, Khan said, still has not switched to online shopping, "providing room for the sector to grow and transactions to reach $10 billion before 2025 from about $6 billion now" according to Bloomberg.
Khan further said that the held-up cash was slowing growth down for e-commerce companies. “We’re trying to build a solution and help them grow.”
In 2021, over $300 million has flowed into Pakistan’s developing technology sector, more than in the previous six years combined, with investments focused on early-stage funding rounds, pointing to the growth potential.
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