Pakistan’s Bazaar raises $70M Series B
One of the most anticipated b2b E-commerce platforms in Pakistan with an exceptional funding record, Bazaar has successfully raised $70M in its Series B financing.
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Pakistan-based Bazaar, the leading B2B e-commerce and fintech platform has successfully raised $70M in its latest funding round. The Series B financing was led by Dragoneer Investment Group and Tiger Global Management, and recorded participation from existing investors including Indus Valley Capital, Defy.vc, Acrew Capital, Wavemaker Partners, B&Y Venture Partners, and Zayn Capital.
Bazaar was founded in June 2020 by Hamza Jawaid and Saad Jangda, two high school best friends who moved back to Pakistan with a mission to create an incredible institution for and from Pakistan. Through its expanding footprint of digital products and last-mile infrastructure, Bazaar provides procurement, fulfillment, operating software, digital lending, and supply chain products to merchants and suppliers in Pakistan. This investment, which comes just 6 months after its historic Series A, takes Bazaar’s total institutional funding to over $100M, establishing it as one of the most well-capitalized startups in the country’s rapidly growing tech ecosystem.
As recorded in our E-commerce 2022 Venture Investment Report, Pakistan's E-commerce sector observe an unprecedented peek in funding to near the $100M mark for the first time in 2021. This increase in capital investment in the sector came at a general influx of capital where funding in Pakistan recorded a 355% YoY surge across industries, and accumulated a 419% YoY growth in funding backing the E-commerce sector in specific over the past year. Surely, B2B marketplaces including Bazaar which raised the highest funding round of last year, Tazah, Dastgyr, and Tajir Pakistan took the lion's share of funding accounting for more than 70% of all capital invested in the sector. Remarkable funding rounds have also been closed by grocery delivery and Q-commerce propositions to make way for the next generation of online ordering, with sizable investments in GrocerApp and Krave Mart. What is intricately unique about the general inclination of emerging E-commerce ventures in Pakistan is their eagerness to capitalize and support the SME segment of the population, which influenced the rise of FinTech integrated E-commerce propositions like Udhaar App enabling mom and pop stores to digitize their ledgers and boost their turn over rates.
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Bazaar’s mission is to build an operating system for traditional retail in Pakistan. This retail economy, worth over $170B, is primarily offline and mostly served through 5 million SMEs across the country. The merchant base, which is the lifeline of Pakistan’s economy, also lacks access to formal financial services in a country that hosts the world’s third-largest unbanked population. At the same time, Pakistan is undergoing a massive digital penetration wave driven by the widespread availability of affordable smartphones and some of the lowest mobile broadband costs in the world. Bazaar aims to capitalize on these fundamentals by building an integrated platform of B2B offerings that can aggregate, digitize, and finance the country’s fragmented retail landscape. “We are thrilled to support Bazaar’s vision of building an end-to-end commerce and fintech platform for millions of unbanked and offline merchants in Pakistan”, said Christian Jensen, Partner at Dragoneer Investment Group. “Bazaar’s pace of geographic expansion and new product development is a testament to the rare talent and culture Hamza and Saad have cultivated at Bazaar.”
Bazaar has been growing at an incredible pace since starting out less than two years ago. Its B2B e-commerce marketplace is now servicing 21 towns and cities across Pakistan, covering 30% of Pakistan’s population through more than a dozen functional fulfillment facilities. Bazaar is adding 3-4 new cities and towns to its last-mile network every month, putting it on course to establish the country's largest tech-enabled last-mile footprint by the end of the year. Through this last-mile network, Bazaar provides hundreds of top brands and manufacturers direct access to underserved merchants and geographies across retail categories powered by real-time analytics and intel on brand performance significantly improving their distribution capability.
Easy Khata, Bazaar’s merchant software product, has brought a new dimension to B2B e-commerce in emerging markets. Easy Khata serves as the core system of record for merchants, helping them digitize procurement, inventory management, customer engagement, accounting, and lending. The app has onboarded over 2.4 million businesses across 500 cities and towns in the country, recording over $10B in annualized bookkeeping transaction value.
Bazaar Credit, the recently launched short-term working capital financing product, provides much-needed liquidity to its largely unbanked merchant base. To date, Bazaar has provided thousands of digital loans, with 100% repayment and significant uplift in merchant buying volumes. Bazaar’s proprietary credit model incorporates customer data from both its marketplace and merchant software products, giving it a differentiated ability to lend to this underserved segment. “We believe that Pakistan is at an inflection point in its tech ecosystem development. Bazaar is tapping into the massive merchant opportunity and is leading the charge in the country. We are excited to back their incredible team and phenomenal growth in such a short span of time.” said John Curtius, partner at Tiger Global Management.
With the fresh round of funding, Bazaar plans to expand into more cities across Pakistan, launch new marketplace categories, scale its lending offerings, and accelerate new product development. “We are humbled and excited to continue on the path to creating a generation-defining story for Pakistan. With the significant backing of two of the largest venture growth funds in the world, we believe this will continue to change the narrative of the country and inspire countless more and bigger stories in near future. This is a result of the trust and partnership of our colleagues, suppliers, and most importantly our customers – the small merchants who are the backbone of our economy.” concluded the founders, Hamza and Saad.
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