Daraz Group Joins the Alibaba Ecosystem
Enabling Daraz’s further growth across its key markets
One of the leading e-commerce companies across South Asia, Daraz Group, has announced today that it was fully acquired by e-commerce giant Alibaba, officially becoming part of the Alibaba ecosystem. Daraz Group was currently operational in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Nepal.
Rumors of the acquisition in the works had been going around a few months now, with Jack Ma’s interest in the Pakistani e-commerce industry, and with CPEC opening up business opportunities. In March 2018, Ant Financial announced its investment in Telenor Bank and this is the second news for the local market which is groundbreaking for our industry.
Read: Alibaba Delegation Engages with Pakistani Businesses
With this acquisition, Daraz will be able to leverage Alibaba’s leadership and experience in technology, online commerce, mobile payment and logistics to drive further growth in the five South Asian markets that have a combined population of over 460 million, 60% of which are under the age of 35.
Daraz will continue to operate under the same brand following the transaction.
Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group, said,
“We are excited for Daraz to become a part of the Alibaba ecosystem. Together with Daraz, we can now empower entrepreneurs to better serve consumers in the region through our technology and expertise. In Daraz, we found a great team that espouses our values and believes that a technology-enabled commerce ecosystem will play a critical role in driving the long term economic development in South Asia.”
Read: Work in Progress: National Policy on E-Commerce
Bjarke Mikkelsen, Co-CEO, Daraz said,
“With this transaction Daraz has found its natural home in the Alibaba family, and we are proud to carry our part of the mission to ‘make it easy to do business anywhere’. With hard work and dedication we have started the e-commerce journey in our markets, but we have still only scratched the surface of the potential.”
Dr. Jonathan Doerr, Co-CEO, Daraz added,
“Together with Alibaba, we are ready to empower entrepreneurs in the region and to fulfill our promise to offer our customers the best selection of products with a high level of convenience. All of this would be supported by a best-in-class technology platform, a strong logistics network, and a vibrant community of ecosystem participants.”
Daraz was founded in Pakistan in 2012 and is one of the leading e-commerce companies here, responsible for taking this industry to heights.
