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Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Pakistani startup 24Seven raises $6m

24Seven, an ecommerce and retail startup based in Pakistan, has raised US$6 million in a pre-series A round led by global venture capital firm SOSV.

24seven.pk was the company’s first direct-to-consumer grocery store when it was founded in 2016. To date, 24Seven has been converting small businesses into distributors.

The ApniDukan rebranding service of the company introduces digital technology, financial services, and visual merchandising into the stores.

CEO and co-founder Jarrar Shah said, “It made so much sense for us to partner with and empower these microentrepreneurs. It is our goal to expand our agent network rapidly and launch a number of new products in the coming months with this new round of funding.

Retail credit and shop branding services are available to all of its 2,500 resellers in six cities across the country.

Read more: Pakistani agritech startup raises $1.3 million in seed funding

There were a few other investors who participated, including

  • BVG (Betatron Venture Group)
  • Newlin Venture Capitalists, Inc.
  • A company that has a high level of integrity
  • Accomplishment
  • Offices belonging to various families
  • Babs Ogundeyi, the founder of Kuda Bank
  • Murtaza Ahmed, a former Softbank executive director

As a direct-to-consumer grocer, 24Seven.pk is empowering the country by creating a network of trusted resellers for small-sized settlements and mohallas.

During the second quarter of the current calendar year (April-June 2022), Pakistan’s startup sector had a dramatic dip in funding, raising a total of $103 million across 15 agreements. On a quarterly basis, the amount was 40% lower.

Read more: Pakistan’s startup sector had a dramatic dip in funding!

According to Invest2Innovate’s (i2i) deal flow update, in 2nd quarter of 2022, Pakistani startups raised $102.7 million almost $69 million less than the amount raised in Q1 ($172 million),  but notably higher from the second quarter of 2021 ($82 million).

As per the report, in the first half of 2022, Pakistani startups raised $274.7 million with 37 deals, with the amount being about 80 percent of what was raised overall during 2021 ($350 million).