B2B Digital Platform Bazaar Nets $30M In Series A Funding

B2B eCommerce startup Bazaar has generated $30 million in the largest Series A funding round for a company in Pakistan, according to a Tuesday (Aug. 24) report in MENAbytes.

Early-stage venture capital firm Defy Partners, as well as returning investor Wavemaker Partners, led the round for the Pakistan-based company, the report stated. The round also saw participation from Acrew Capital, Saison Capital, Zayn Capital, B&Y Venture Partners, Indus Valley Capital, Global Founders Capital, Next Billion Ventures and Alter Global. Several angel investors also contributed to the funding round.

The latest round comes seven months following Bazaar’s seed round, which netted $6.5 million, according to the report.

Established in mid-2020, Bazaar serves 5 million small merchants throughout Pakistan, according to the company’s website. Bazaar provides a book-keeping platform for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and offers thousands of business-related products that merchants can buy for their retail operations.

Bazaar strives to provide an interconnectedness between retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers, according to the report.

Bazaar is not the only Pakistan-based company seeing an influx of capital, PYMNTS reported. KTrade and Abhi received new funding contributions totaling $6.6 million in June.

Read more: Foreign Investors Pour Millions Into Pakistan’s FinTech Startups

Those funding rounds are in addition to the $19.3 million raised by Pakistan’s startups in the first quarter of 2021. Of the amount raised in Q1, close to $15 million was derived from investors outside of the country.

In 2020, foreign investments in Pakistan reached a whopping $48 million.

KTrade, a FinTech trading app which enables investors to buy and sell equities on the Pakistan Stock Exchange, raised $4.5 million in a funding round led by Hong Kong-based TT Bond Partners and HOF Capital from New York with participation by German investor Christian Angermayer. Abhi, which provides users with a tool to get advanced access to funds earned prior to payday, generated $2.1 million in seed funding.