Rider bags $2.3 million in seed funding round

KARACHI: Rider, a tech-led last mile delivery partner for e-commerce retailers, has raised $2.3 million in a seed round led by the venture capital firm, Global Founders Capital, Fatima Gobi Ventures and the Asian Development Bank. TPL E-Ventures and Transhold also participated, a statement said on Wednesday.

The Karachi-based B2B2C service was launched in 2019 by Salman Allana, who was previously head of strategy and business development at UPS Pakistan and assistant vice president at the Citi Bank.

Today, Rider boasts coverage in over 80 cities across the country, with shipper clients, including Pakistan’s top five online retailers such as Khaadi and Daraz.

The startup’s 500-strong delivery agent fleet, which is easily scalable at peak times, has so far delivered more than 1.5 million e-commerce parcels across Pakistan with a market-leading success rate of 93 per cent.

Rider’s exponential growth in just two years is attributable to its ability to weave global best practice technology and process innovation into its delivery cycles, building real-time connectivity between its shippers, delivery agents and customers.

Today, Rider’s app-based platforms, route optimisation, live tracking, live scheduling, and highly automated warehousing puts the logistics tech startup at the forefront of Pakistan’s burgeoning last mile delivery space.

Market-leading offerings such as 24-hour cash repayment, one-day lead time, “Cash Now, Deliver Later”, and high overall delivery success rate have made Rider the preferred last-mile delivery partners of national shippers and Pakistan’s growing online SME community.

Salman Allana, founder and chief executive officer of Rider, said: “We’re excited about the investors we have on board, they collectively bring unparalleled logistics industry expertise and emerging markets exposure. Their capital injection will enable Rider’s plans to expand our network and integrate our proven last-mile service into other key parts of the value chain.”

“Ultimately, we want to build an end-to-end e-commerce logistics solution, complete with e-commerce enablement. Our vision is to be the number one logistics solutions provider for Pakistan’s e-commerce needs,” he added.