Pakistan’s E-Commerce Startup 24SEVEN Raises $6 million Pre-Series A

Pakistan-based e-commerce and retail startup, 24SEVEN, raised $6 million in its pre-series A round. The round was led by SOSV with participation from Betatron Venture Group, Newlin VC, Verity Capital, and Argo’s Quest. A host of Pakistani and international offices as well as angel investors also participated in the round.

Founded as a grocery delivery platform in 2016, the startup rebranded itself in 2021 to 24SEVEN to enable neighbourhood ‘kiryana’ stores for B2B and B2C services through digitisation, and transforming them into 24SEVEN Apni Dukan resellers.

Investments in Pakistan’s e-commerce startups have been gaining momentum since 2020. Pakistani e-commerce startups raised $203 in venture capital funding in 2021, a 891% increase compared to 2020, according to a Techshaw report. The bulk of investment went into Airlift, a Pakistani-based logistics startup, receiving $85 million in funding in 2021.

“Kiryanas have been servicing Pakistani communities for decades, cultivating deep relationships with suppliers and households alike,” Jarrar Shah, CEO and co-founder of 24SEVEN, tells #StartupScene. “With over one million of these shops all across Pakistan, it made so much sense for us to partner with and empower these micro-entrepreneurs. With this funding round, we plan on continuing to scale our agent network aggressively and launch several exciting new products in the weeks and months ahead.”

24SEVEN is working to modernise supply chains while also making the lives of Pakistan's kiryanas easier with frequent deliveries, friendly payment terms, and easy-to-use technology. The funds will be used to further expand the startup’s community commerce platform, Apni Dukan.

To date, 24SEVEN has over 2,000 mom-and-pop stores onboard in five cities: Lahore, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura, Multan and Faisalabad. Its GMV has also been growing 40% month-on-month.

Last month, the startup raised $1 million in seed funding from Betatron Venture Group, taking the total funding raised by 24SEVEN to $7 million so far.