Pakistani B2B e-commerce platform Bazaar has landed a $70 million Series B round.
Bazaar founders Hamza Jawaid and Saad Jangda
The round was co-led by Dragoneer Investment Group and Tiger Global Management and saw participation from existing investors Indus Valley Capital, Defy Partners, Acrew Capital, Wavemaker Partners, B&Y Venture Partners and Zayn Capital, among others.
The investment takes Bazaar’s total capital raised to more than $100 million.
Bazaar provides procurement, fulfilment, operating software, digital lending and supply chain products to merchants and suppliers in Pakistan, many of whom are offline.
The fintech says it wants to build an ‘operating system’ for the 5 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that form the backbone of Pakistan’s traditional retail economy, worth more than $170 billion.
Despite a surge in digitisation, many of Pakistan’s merchants lack access to financial services in a country that has the world’s third largest unbanked population.
Bazaar claims its B2B e-commerce marketplace is now servicing 21 towns and cities across Pakistan, covering 30% of Pakistan’s population.
Easy Khata, Bazaar’s merchant software product, helps users digitise procurement, inventory management, customer engagement, accounting and lending. It is currently used by more than 2.4 million businesses across 500 cities and towns.
The company says that Bazaar Credit, its recently launched short-term working capital financing product, provides much-needed liquidity to its largely unbanked merchant base.
The new funds will be used to expand into more cities across Pakistan, launch new marketplace categories, scale its lending offerings and accelerate new product development.
Bazaar was founded in June 2020 by Hamza Jawaid and Saad Jangda.
