Dastgyr, a Pakistan-based B2B e-commerce marketplace platform, has raised $15m in Series A funding led by VEON Ventures.
Dastgyr offers what it calls a “one-stop-shop” application to businesses that connects thousands of retailers with suppliers to give them access to teal-time visibility on pricing and financing rates. The platform’s partners have included Coca-Cola, Nestle, and Reckitt.
VEON Ventures’ investment was made alongside 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, along with the founders of Property Finder, Ayoconnect, Quiqup and senior management from DoorDash.
The backing from VEON Ventures represents the company’s largest investment to date in a Pakistani startup. Dastgyr said this reflects the growth of Pakistan’s digital economy.
Dastgyr will remain an independent entity, with a minority position being taken by VEON Ventures. The new investment round will support Dastgyr’s expansion into 15 new cities in Pakistan, alongside its existing network in Karachi, Lahore, Sialkot and Gujranwala.
Mohd Khairil Abdullah, CEO of VEON Ventures, said, “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.
“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.”
Pakistan-based FinTech company Abhi recently raised $17m in Series A funding, seeing it valued at $90m. The company enables users to get access of up 50% of their earned salary at any time of the month.
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