Tag: Pakistani Company

  • Pakistani digital freight marketplace, ‘BridgeLinx’, raises $10 million

    Pakistani digital freight marketplace, ‘BridgeLinx’, raises $10 million

    A Lahore-based digital freight marketplace called BirdgeLinx has raised nearly $10 million in the country’s largest round. The round was led by Harry Stebbings’ 20 VC, Josh Buckley’s Buckley Ventures, and Indus Valley Capital.

    According to the details, the deal was oversubscribed twice and even included the participation of Wavemaker Partners, Quiet Capital, TrueSight Ventures, Soma Capital, Flexport, Untitled, and some of the largest business groups of Pakistan, including Maple Leaf Capital. This included several angel investors as well as founders of Convoy (US-based freight marketplace) and Bazaar (Pakistani B2B marketplace) also joined the round.

    BridgeLinx enables businesses to move freight by connecting them with carriers such as truckers, owner-operators, transporters, and private fleets through its online marketplace. The startup was launched nearly nine months ago and already the startup has claimed to have onboarded thousands of carriers who are moving thousands of shipments every week.

    Moreover, the platform offers an end-to-end solution for load execution starting from matching payments whereas businesses can use the startup’s mobile app to book different types of vehicles to move their load. In addition, clients can track their shipments in the app and oversee all shipment-related documents.

    Salman Gul, co-founder and CEO of BridgeLinx stated the following:

    “With logistics averaging at 10 per cent of GDP globally, deploying technology to optimise and create visibility across global supply chains is a trillion-dollar opportunity. At BridgeLinx, we are on a mission to redefine the way in which businesses manage supply chains – from procurement and shipping to warehousing and distribution. Our journey starts with road freight in Pakistan, and the talent-dense team we are building is incredibly privileged to be backed by some of the best investors from around the world.”

    According to Harry Stebbings of 20VC: “For me, the best investments combine incredible, category-defining entrepreneurs with macro headwinds. BridgeLinx is just that – a team of phenomenal entrepreneurs operating in a space with limitless potential.”

    Indus Valley Capital’s Managing Partner Aatif Awan also added: “BridgeLinx has cracked the code for making end-to-end freight work in a hassle-free manner and therefore signed up some of the top businesses in Pakistan. We believe this team is well on its way to bring unprecedented efficiencies to the country’s economy and are really excited to partner with them.”

    As of now, BridgeLinx aims to utilise the funds in order to “consolidate its position as a market leader by broadening its product stack and expanding across additional verticals, segments, and lanes” as mentioned by the startup.

  • Airlift raises $85 million in Pakistan for online delivery service

    Airlift raises $85 million in Pakistan for online delivery service

    As Pakistan joins a regional startup financing boom, Airlift Technologies Pvt. has raised the biggest single private investment round in the country’s history, ahead of plans to enter international markets.

    As per details, with involvement from former Y Combinator president Sam Altman, the Lahore-based online retail delivery company received $85 million in Series B funding headed by Harry Stebbings of 20VC and Josh Buckley of Buckley Ventures Ltd. According to a data tracker from venture capitalist firm Invest2Innovate, it would be the largest-ever investment for a Pakistani company.

    Pakistan is “in the very early stages, but the transformation is happening very, very quickly and we are seeing a shift in behavior,” Airlift co-founder Usman Gul said in an interview. “We have a lot of people who previously didn’t shop online.”

    The investment in Pakistan, a country with a population of more than 200 million people and a nascent digital sector, parallels a surge of investment over the border in India.

    According to Invest2Innovate statistics, Pakistani entrepreneurs, most of which are focused on e-commerce, raised a record $101 million in the first half of this year, compared to $66 million in all of 2020. That still pales in comparison to its neighbor, where technology companies made a record $6.3 billion in the second quarter.

    The investment comes after Airlift switched to e-commerce with 30-minute shipping in September after the epidemic forced them to abandon their primary business of providing air-conditioned bus trips. It joins a very competitive market across the globe, where supermarkets and e-commerce companies like Dunzo, Gorillas, Getir, and GoPuff compete for fast deliveries in congested areas ranging from Delhi to New York and London.

    The total money raised by Pakistani startups in the first half of the year is equal to the amount raised by Airlift. According to statistics collected by Bloomberg, it also surpasses the biggest initial public offering by the private sector in the United States.

    It now intends to expand to 15 Pakistani cities by the end of the year, up from the existing eight. It’s also on a recruiting frenzy, with ambitions to increase its core staff to 400 people by the end of next year, according to Gul. In approximately three months, the firm plans to join a growing market abroad.

    “Very quickly we realised that the distribution of consumer goods was quite broken,” he said. “I ordered groceries and had to wait six hours to get that delivery. So we wanted to change that.”