Pakistan’s Logistics Startup ,Rider, Raised $3.1 Million

 

Rider, a Pakistani logistics firm, announced on Monday that it has raised $3.1 million in a funding round led by numerous investors, bringing the total amount raised to $5.4 million since September 2021.

YCombinator led the round, with i2i Ventures, Flexport, Soma Capital, and Rebel Fund joining as new investors. Existing investors such as Global Founders Capital, Fatima Gobi Ventures (FGV), and TPL E-ventures, as well as well-known angel investor Arash Ferdowsi (Co-Founder Dropbox), took part in the round, according to the company.

Salman Allana, former head of strategy and business development at UPS Pakistan and assistant vice president at Citibank, launched the Karachi-based B2B2C firm in 2019. It announced last year that it had raised $2.3 million in a pre-seed round.

The company boasts that its monthly revenue has climbed by 110 percent since then, and its client list has more than tripled to 650 online vendors. In a statement, Rider noted, “Rider has already successfully delivered over 3 million items across 60 cities in Pakistan.”

“Rider has been building a network of sorting hubs, metropolitan distribution centres, and a digital fleet in order to provide online retailers in Pakistan with next-day ‘Amazon-like’ delivery service.” “The Rider platform includes route optimization for delivery agents, live tracking and scheduling for buyers, and a completely automated warehousing function for sellers,” the statement stated.

The company boasts that its monthly revenue has climbed by 110 percent since then, and its client list has more than tripled to 650 online vendors. In a statement, Rider noted, “Rider has already successfully delivered over 3 million items across 60 cities in Pakistan.”

“Rider has been building a network of sorting hubs, metropolitan distribution centres, and a digital fleet in order to provide online retailers in Pakistan with next-day ‘Amazon-like’ delivery service.” “The Rider platform includes route optimization for delivery agents, live tracking and scheduling for buyers, and a completely automated warehousing function for sellers,” the statement stated.

With 81 agreements totaling $350 million reported in 2021, Pakistan’s startup industry enjoyed its best year yet. The entire amount raised was $65 million, which was more than five times the amount raised in 2020. Despite a few setbacks in 2022, the startup industry has kept up its momentum. Companies raised a total of $163 million in the first quarter, according to Invest2Innovate’s Deal Flow Tracker.

Last week, Veon Ventures led a $37 million Series A fundraising round for Dastgyr, a Pakistan-based B2B e-commerce marketplace platform. Swvl, on the other hand, recently announced that it is discontinuing intra-city services “in light of the global economic slump,” while Airlift said that it is reducing its global headcount by 31%. A logistics company, Truck It In, has also announced layoffs.