invezz.com
Pakistan has seen a significant surge in interest regarding a recently launched blockchain-powered B2B marketplace called Bazaar Technologies. The blockchain startup’s recent Series A funding round managed to secure around $30 million, becoming the largest funding round in the country’s history.
The company announced the closure of the raise only yesterday, August 24th, revealing a few details about it along the way. For example, the funding round was led by the Silicon Valley-headquartered company, Defy Partners, alongside Singapore-based Wavemaker Partners.
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Of course, dozens of others have participated as well, although in a somewhat smaller capacity. Some of the better-known names include LinkedIn, Endeavor, and Japan-based Saison Capital. There were also some existing investors, like Alter Global and Indus Valley Capital.
The most successful blockchain startup in Pakistan
According to Bazaar’s report, the company is a leading B2B marketplace platform for Pakistan’s small merchants. It currently serves over 750,000 small businesses across 400 different towns and villages. The majority of these are the so-called mom-and-pop grocery stores, which are called “kiryana” in the country. These businesses have found the platform highly useful for purchasing inventory from various suppliers.
This latest funding round has significantly increased the company’s total funding, which is currently near $38 million, with the exact figure being $37.8 million. Previously, the company managed to raise $6.5 million in January 2021, and before that, it raised $1.3 million in June 2020, during a pre-seed round.
The company likely owes the success of the funding rounds, at least in some capacity, to Pakistan’s government’s moves to develop more permissive regulations for the digital currency sector. The country’s SEC published a consultation document last November, in which it detailed many of the benefits that cryptocurrency assets and tokenization can bring to businesses and individuals.
The document serves as a rather good example of how local regulations are supposed to be developed, and many would likely benefit from studying its structure. One of the country’s provinces, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, even revealed plans to host two hydro-powered cryptocurrency mining farms earlier this year, in March.