Bazaar, Pakistan’s B2B marketplace and digital ledger, nets $30m

Bazaar, a year old B2B marketplace and digital ledger startup from Pakistan, announced raising $30 million in its Series A funding round, the country’s largest Series A on record.

The round, co-anchored by Silicon Valley-based early-stage venture capital firm VC Defy Partners and Wavemaker Partners, takes Bazaar’s total funding to $38 million, making it one of the best-funded startups in Pakistan.

A number of global investors also participated in the funding round. These include US-based Acrew Capital, Japan’s Saison Capital, UAE’s Zayn Capital, B&Y Venture Partners, and a Silicon Valley-based growth fund.

Bazaar aims to build an operating system for traditional retail in Pakistan. Through its B2B ecommerce platform and digital ledger product Easy Khata, Bazaar aims to help the 5 million MSMEs in the country seamlessly procure inventory, manage their bookkeeping, and access financial services to simplify and grow their business.

Through its multi-product offerings, Bazaar is bringing a range of products and services, such as commerce, accounting, payments, lending, invoicing, and inventory management as part of one digital stack for small merchants.

Bazaar was founded in June 2020 by Saad Jangda and Hamza Jawaid, whose personal mission is to bring together and cultivate talent both in Pakistan and the diaspora to ultimately create a platform that further enables entrepreneurship in the country.

Prior to Bazaar, Saad was a product manager for ride-hailing and food delivery products at Careem, while Hamza was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, based in Dubai. The two went to high
school together and have been best friends since.

“Bazaar is going after a massive opportunity with the ultimate aim of creating a generational story in and from Pakistan. In a country with incredible talent and huge market opportunity, it’s about time we create an inspirational story that brings together the country’s best talent who can go on to create many such stories in the future,” said the founders.