Dragoneer Investment Group and Tiger Global are supporting Bazaar, a startup that is trying to revolutionise Pakistani retail via e-commerce, finance, and last-mile supply chain solutions, they announced today.
The two led Bazaar’s $70 million Series B round. A number of existing investors, including Indus Valley Capital, Defy Partners, Acrew Capital, Wavemaker Partners, B&Y Venture Partners and Zayn Capital, joined the latest round.
Pakistan’s Bazaar is trying to establish a “operating system for conventional retail.” It’s a $170 billion market with 5 million small and medium-sized firms.
They are now primarily unbanked and disconnected. Banking institutions won’t lend to these businesses since they lack a credit score. Due to this gap, many of these shop owners have turned to shark lenders.
This challenge will be familiar to those who cover South Asia.
B2B e-commerce In India, Udaan, ElasticRun, Dukaan, a business that helps retailers go online, as well as Reliance and Amazon, are all tackling the same issue.
Bazaar combines many of these.
The startup’s B2B e-commerce marketplace helps merchants in 21 Pakistani cities find products to sell.
These businesses also utilise the Easy Khata app to keep track of their finances. Bazaar Credit, Bazaar’s finance arm, provides short-term working capital credit to these small-town entrepreneurs.
