Pakistan’s B2B marketplace Bazaar raises $30 million, this is what the co-founder said when compared to India’s Udaan and KhataBook – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s B2B marketplace Bazaar is reportedly the latest to secure a mega round in the South Asian market. According to a report in Tech Crunch, the one-year-old startup has raised $30 million in a Series A round. The new financing round is said to be the largest Series A in Pakistan.
Who all led the funding in Bazaar
As per the report, the new financing round was led by Silicon Valley-based early stage venture capitalists Defy Partners and Singapore-based Wavemaker Partners. Other investors who participated in the round reportedly include the current and former leaders of Antler, Careem, Endeavor, Gumroad, LinkedIn and Notion. The list also has new investors Acrew Capital, Japan’s Saison Capital, UAE’s Zayn Capital and B&Y Venture Partners and existing investors Indus Valley Capital, Global Founders Capital, Next Billion Ventures, and Alter Global.
What is Bazaar into
Bazaar is building a business-to-business marketplace for merchants in Pakistan and helping them digitize their bookkeeping. On being compared to India’s Udaan and KhataBook, Hamza Jawaid, co-founder of Bazaar told Tech Crunch in an interview, “That’s a good way to describe us.” He further added, “We had this benefit of hindsight to not just look at India but other emerging markets.”
“We saw lots of synergies between these two. If you look at commerce, you have to acquire every single merchant in every single category differently. Whereas with Khata, merchants in any city and category can download it. So effectively, it’s a great customer acquisition tool for you,” he reportedly told Tech Crunch over a WhatsApp call.
Earlier this month, another one-year-old startup in the country, Airlift, raised $85 million. Airlift reportedly operates a commerce service in eight cities, including Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad in Pakistan.