Markaz Technologies, an Islamabad-based startup, revealed on Tuesday that it had received $2.4 million in seed funding from Indus Valley Capital (IVC).
Angel investors, including Kyane Kassiri of Suya Fund and leaders from Careem, Deloitte, Amazon, and Gojek, would join the funding round. In a press release, Markaz stated.
Markaz Technologies is a Y-Combinator-backed — a prestigious US-based accelerator — startup that offers anyone in Pakistan an online reselling platform that allows them to source wholesale products from across the country and resell them for a profit through their own social media stores, all without having to invest any money.
Markaz says it is on a mission to “supercharge the rails of e-commerce and make it accessible for masses in Pakistan by empowering these micro-entrepreneurs”.
“Markaz is building for all of Pakistan, with the ambition of enabling those in smaller cities and villages to source products directly from wholesalers and suppliers,” the press release quoted IVC Founder and Managing Partner Aatif Awan as saying.
Awan said the startup would also create “hundreds of thousands of micro-entrepreneurs” along the way and bring them into the financial ecosystem. “We, at IVC, are thrilled to partner with Markaz in helping them realise their mission,” he said.
Shoaib Khan, Fawad Hussain, Sameel Hayat, and Umair Aslam created the company in the fourth quarter of 2021 after working for large-scale Internet companies such as Telenor, Amazon, Easypaisa, and Alipay in Pakistan and around the world.
Markaz plans to use the funds raised in the successful capital round to expand and grow its mobile platform, as well as improve user experience by improving delivery operations, payments, and customer service.
