Pakistani logistics firm lands $3.1m from Y Combinator, others

Rider, a Pakistan-based ecommerce logistics startup, has raised US$3.1 million in seed funding from Y Combinator and Global Founders Capital, as well as Dropbox co-founder Arash Ferdowsi.

Combined with another seed round last year, the startup has bagged a total of US$5.4 million in funding money.

Rider founder and CEO Salman Allana / Photo credit: Rider

Founded in 2019 by Salman Allana, a former UPS Pakistan executive, Rider offers next-day delivery and digitalized warehouse services to ecommerce merchants, as well as route optimization for delivery agents. The platform also allows buyers to schedule and live-track their parcels.

The company said that since September 2021, its monthly revenue has grown 110% and its number of customers has doubled. To date, the company has delivered over 3 million parcels across 60 cities in Pakistan.

The startup plans to use the fresh funds to develop infrastructure beyond logistics, including a payment wallet to enable faster transactions for sellers. It also aims to roll out new offerings to onboard users, especially Pakistan’s over 1 million female-owned small businesses.

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According to Allana, who also serves as Rider’s CEO, traditional logistics companies in Pakistan have been struggling to catch up with the ecommerce trend, and about US$1 billion in GMV is lost annually due to failed and delayed deliveries.

Other investors in the round include:

• i2i Ventures
• Flexport
• Soma Capital
• Rebel Fund
• Fatima Gobi Ventures
• TPL e-Ventures