In a streak of startups raising money, Lahore-based freight marketplace BridgeLinx has raised $10 million in the country’s largest seed round.
Regionally too, it is also one of the largest seed rounds. It was led by Harry Stenbbings’ 20 VC, Aatif Awan’s Indus Valley Capital, and Josh Buckley’s Buckley Ventures.
The news was shared by Aatif Awan, who took to Twitter to announce the news.
1/ We're thrilled to announce @indusvalleycap investing in @BridgeLinxTech, co-leading their $10M seed round w/ @HarryStebbings at @20vcFund and @joshbuckley at Buckley Ventures https://t.co/TSwaHhKchv
— Aatif Awan (@aatif_awan) September 14, 2021
Menabytes, the leading startup news agency for the MENA region reported the startup saying that the deal was oversubscribed nearly twice and includes the participation of Wavemaker Partners, Quiet Capital, TrueSight Ventures, Soma Capital, Flexport, Untitled, and some of the largest business groups of Pakistan, including Maple Leaf Capital.
Several angel investors including founders of Convoy (US-based freight marketplace) and Bazaar (Pakistani B2B marketplace) also joined the round.
BrideLinx was founded in late 2020 by Muhammad Saad, Ahsan Tanveer, Abbas Hassan, and Salman Gul. The company helps businesses, with a major focus on large manufacturers and retailers, to move freight by connecting with movers(trucks, owner-operators, transporters, and private fleets) through its online marketplace.
It also provides its tech solutions to ensure documents validation on both ends, timely pickups, port operations, and safety of cargo, co-founder Gul told Tech Crunch, who previously worked at consultancy firm KPMG in Canada.
Within nine months, the company claims to have onboarded thousands of freight loads each week for many of its big clients. According to Menabytes, the platform is being used by the country’s largest textile groups, cement manufacturers, agro-businesses, electronics manufacturers, chemicals companies, and online marketplaces.
“More than a fifth of Pakistan’s top 100 exporters actively use BridgeLinx to move freight”, the company told Menabytes.
BridgeLinx is a one-stop shop for those who need cargo moving, taking care of everything from matching shippers to carriers, to payments.
This will be getting rid of one of the biggest problems for the truckers, that is, coming back to their point of origin empty-handed. Earlier, if a trucker had to ship cargo from Lahore to Faisalabad, after making the delivery, the carrier would be coming back to Lahore empty-handed, leading to wastage of resources.
But with BridgeLunx’s scheduling and routing technology matches them with the most reliable, cost-effective, and efficient transport partner.
Talking to TechCrunch, Gul said that BridgeLinx is trying to do away with the inefficiencies in the trucking sector, adding that he has studied the models of similar businesses like Convoy, India’s BlackBuck, and Rivigo, on how they have scaled their business in recent years, and aims to make a hybrid model out of both BlackBuck and Rivigo’s model.
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Thus, the capital gained will be used to expand the company’s own fleet, like Rivigo, and broaden its tech offerings.
Harry Stebbings of 20VC, who also sits on the board of Airlift, commented in a statement, “For me, the best investments combine incredible, category-defining entrepreneurs with macro headwinds. BridgeLinx is just that – a team of phenomenal entrepreneurs operating in a space with limitless potential,” Mena Bytes reported.
It is worth mentioning that 20VC and Buckley Ventures had recently also co-led $85 million Series B of Airlift, a Pakistani quick commerce startup. Indus Valley Capital, an early investor in the company had also participated in the deal.