Dastgyr, a Pakistan-based B2B ecommerce platform, has raised $37M in Series A funding in which VEON Ventures contribution was $15M. The funding will be used to expand Pakistan’s ecommerce sector.
Zinal Growth, DEG, Khwarizmi Ventures, OTF Jasoor Ventures, Cedar Mundi Ventures, Reflect Ventures, Century Oak Capital, Haitou Global, GoingVC, Astir Ventures, K3 Diversity Ventures, Chandaria Capital, as well as the founders of Property Finder, Ayoconnect, Quiqup, and senior management from DoorDash, all invested in Dastgyr Series A funding.
Dastgyr, founded by Muhammad Owais and Zohaib Ali in 2020, assists Pakistan’s over 2M merchants with procurement issues by linking them with manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers, as well as providing next-day delivery and microloans.
What changes after funding?
With this funding, VEON Ventures will hold a minority stake in Dastgyr, but it will remain an independent company. Dastgyr will use the new funding to expand into 15 new cities in Pakistan, in addition to its existing network.
The investment is VEON Ventures’ largest in a Pakistani start-up and underscores the company’s sustained commitment to the region and the country’s digital economy.
Growth
Since its latest fundraising, the firm has grown by 300 percent, adding over 42,000 retailers across five cities and diversifying into new areas such as construction and building materials.
“As part of VEON’s transformation into a digital operator that delivers a growing range of services to our customers we are investing in leading digital companies like Dastgyr in the countries where we operate. These investments are the building blocks of the digital ecosystem that will enable us to deliver on our strategy,” said Mohd Khairil Abdullah, CEO of VEON Ventures. “Pakistan, with its rapidly growing digital sector, is a key market for VEON. By bringing together Dagstyr’s e-commerce business with Jazz’s communications network and JazzCash’s mobile payments platform, we will catalyse growth in digital services in Pakistan. This would be further enhanced by the digital banking services that we have ambitions to provide.”
“We are thrilled to achieve this milestone in the current global economic environment,” said Zohaib Ali, co-founder of Dastgyr. “We welcome the new investors to the Dastgyr family as we continue to work relentlessly toward our vision of building an AliBaba for emerging markets worldwide. We’re lucky to have found strategic partners who believe in our mission and have displayed unwavering faith in our team. Financial inclusion, which is central to the startup’s mission, will uplift and enable Pakistan’s small- and medium-sized retail entrepreneurs, potentially unlocking up to an additional US$ 10 billion for the country’s GDP, according to our estimates.”
