Bazaar raises $6.5M in Seed funding

Pakistan: Bazaar Technologies, a B2B E-commerce marketplace in Pakistan has raised a $6.5M Seed funding round. co-led by Global Founders Capital and Indus Valley Capital.

The investment marks one of the largest Seed rounds raised by a startup in the MENAP region – a huge milestone for the rapidly developing tech ecosystem in Pakistan. This takes the 8-month-old startup’s total funding to $7.8M.

Bazaar was co-founded by Saad Jangda and Hamza Jawaid, who are on a mission to bring together and cultivate talent both in Pakistan and the diaspora to ultimately create a platform that further enables entrepreneurship in the country. Prior to Bazaar, Jangda was a product manager for ride-hailing and food delivery products at Careem, while Jawaid was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, based in Dubai.

The startup’s aim is to digitize traditional retail in Pakistan. Using the country’s rising mobile adoption, Bazaar is looking to empower the millions of SMEs that dominate the market by providing significant value and convenience through various digital products.

As their first product, Bazaar has created a mobile-based B2B e-commerce marketplace that enables mom-and-pop grocery stores (called kiryana stores) to purchase directly from manufacturers, wholesalers, and suppliers. The Bazaar App provides kiryana owners with a large assortment of branded and unbranded products, which can be ordered at any time, any day with free next-day delivery. On one end of the marketplace, kiryana owners benefit from Bazaar App’s convenient ordering, reliable delivery, and competitive prices. Suppliers, on the other end, through Bazaar get a direct-to-retail channel and are provided actionable insights on purchase patterns and trends.

Co-Founder Hamza Jawaid commented, “As the fifth largest country in the world with rising digital adoption, we have an incredible opportunity to empower micro-businesses through technology. Over 80% of our customers own and operate smartphones, yet their way of running a business has not changed, until now. By bringing them online, we can meaningfully improve their business and their lives, freeing up time to focus on the most important tasks, eventually enabling greater returns.”