LAHORE: GrocerApp, Pakistan’s online grocery delivery platform, has raised $5.2 million in a Series-A round of funding from local and international institutional and angel investors.
Hayaat Global led the financing, with Millville Opportunities Fund of New York, MENA-based Wamda Capital, Jabbar Internet Group, and Nama Ventures, China-based Haitou Global, and Pakistan-based LeanBricks and Walled City Co. participating. Former Souq/Amazon MENA CFO Asif Keshodia, Khalid Alami, Ziyad Alami of Huda Group in Dubai, and Jon Puckhaber of Alvento Capital, who attended in his personal capacity, were among the angels who participated.
GrocerApp, founded in 2016 by Ahmad Saeed, Hassaan Sadiq, and Rai Bilal, is revolutionising grocery shopping in Pakistan by focusing on the customer experience. According to data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics’ Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES), grocery shopping is the largest section of consumer expenditures, accounting for nearly $48 billion in 2019. It was also a mostly untouched market in terms of tech-enabled solutions until lately.
Prior to GrocerApp, the founders were significant members of the PakWheels team, which grew PakWheels into one of Pakistan’s first IT ecosystem powerhouses.
GrocerApp has scaled tremendously in Lahore and has moved fast to the twin towns of Islamabad and Rawalpindi after receiving $5.2 million in Series-A funding barely seven months after securing $1 million in seed capital from renowned institutional and angel investors.
GrocerApp claims that its total number of orders and revenue climbed by 300 percent between the two rounds, with total annualised revenue topping $15 million.
With 100 million internet users, Pakistan has reached critical mass in terms of internet adoption. With over 750,000 new internet connections added each month, the country has one of the fastest smartphone adoption rates in the world. GrocerApp is focused on capturing this burgeoning online user base by providing a smooth customer experience that meets their online grocery buying needs.
GrocerApp CEO Ahmad Saeed stated of the investment, “We thank our success to the tireless work of our outstanding staff, who have enabled us to rapidly scale in such a short period of time while preserving sustainable and healthy unit economics.”“We are ecstatic to have experienced investors as partners, who are assisting us not only with finance but also with operational and domain skills, allowing GrocerApp to become Pakistan’s leading e-commerce platform. We want to immediately expand our offerings to strategic cities in Pakistan, as well as expand new business activities in the online grocery retail area, with the current fundraising round,” he added.
Hayaat Global Chairman Muhammad Ikhlaq said of their investment in the round, “GrocerApp’s team is battle-hardened since it has been in the grocery segment for over four years and knows the difficult retail vertical well.” “The team has scaled operations on a shoestring budget while retaining competitive momentum, demonstrating the potential to win without relying primarily on financial burn. “We are excited to support this seasoned team, and we believe that the cash investment will propel GrocerApp into a dominant market position,” Ikhlaaq added.
“We’ve established a seamless infrastructure to collect orders, commence fulfilment, and complete delivery,” said Asif Keshodia, director at GrocerApp. GrocerApp has tripled in size in just a few months, a testament to our ability to satisfy hundreds of customers every day. We believe it has the potential to become Pakistan’s largest retailer, which is why we’re committed to continuing to innovate.”
Source: Profit.PakistanToday
