Pakistani fintech and logistics startup PostEx announced on Monday that it has successfully raised $8.6m in total capital at seed after adding its latest securing of $7.1 million.
The Lahore-based startup started in April and it helps e-commerce businesses by providing them cash before making deliveries and giving them finance to run their businesses.
The startup said in a statement that the latest funding makes it the second largest investment at this stage in Pakistan. The statement further added that the extension round was led by Global Founders Capital (GFC) while FJ Labs and RTP Global in Pakistan also participated.
The company will be using the funds to expand into 15 to 20 more cities across Pakistan and it plans to increase its workforce and launch more fintech products, as reported by Bloomberg.
Pakistani startups cross $258m mark in investment
Previously during the last month, PostEx had raised $1.5 million in a seed funding round led by MSA Capital, which is also an investor in Uber and Klarna among other major tech companies, with the UAE-based Shorooq Partners, Pakistan-focused Zayn Capital, Dubai-headquartered VentureSouq, PNO Ventures, 92Ventures as well as the CEO of Arbisoft, Yasser Bashir also participating in it.
Founder Muhammad Omer Khan started the venture after learning that over 90% of Pakistan’s online shopping is carried out with post-delivery cash payments and not via electronic transactions.
As reported by Bloomberg, Khan noted that the majority of the population has not switched to online shopping, “providing room for the sector to grow and transactions to reach $10 billion before 2025 from about $6 billion now”.
Khan further added that the held-up cash was slowing down the growth for e-commerce companies. He added, “We’re trying to build a solution and help them grow.”
In 2021, more than $300 million has flowed into Pakistan’s developing technology sector, which is more than the amount from the previous six years combined, with investments focused on early-stage funding rounds, pointing to the growth potential.
