Pakistan-based social commerce platform DealCart announced raising a $4.5 million pre-seed funding round led by Shorooq Partners. Other participants include Fatima Gobi Ventures, Vibe Capital, 500 Global, i2i Ventures, Julian Shapiro, Rally Cap Ventures, Alex Lazarow, and several strategic angel investors.
DealCart is a group buying platform that provides underserved communities with access to
affordable daily essential products in a gamified manner. According to a press statement, it’s a $60 billion opportunity, and the funding will go towards product development and team expansion. The startup was founded in March 2022 by Haider Raza and Ammar Naveed.
Previously, Ammar was a senior director at Careem overseeing its operations across the Middle East & Pakistan. Meanwhile, Haider launched and scaled mobility startup Swvl in Pakistan,
in addition to co-founding a tourism startup.
The startup wants to increase e-commerce penetration in Pakistan, which is currently concentrated among the upper middle class. The majority of the population values and prioritizes the affordability of daily essential products, which DealCart is addressing through its ‘buy together and save together’ model, according to a press statement. “It allows users to buy in groups, as well as share deals on messaging platforms and social media. This empowers customers with the ability to place larger orders as a group, unlocking lower prices for all, while providing a new, engaging, and community-centric way to shop.”
Fatima Gobi Ventures’ General Partner Ali Mukhtar commented, “Given the rising cost of
living across the world, there is greater demand for solutions like DealCart that are enabling
access to affordable daily necessities. We have high conviction in the team and model as it
fits perfectly within FGV’s investment strategy, which is to fund high-growth tech companies
that have the ability to generate scalable impact. We look forward to supporting Haider,
Ammar and their team, and we’re excited to be part of their journey.”
Though funding for Pakistani startups slowed down considerably in Q2 of 2022, the momentum seems to be picking up again with DBank’s announcement of Pakistan’s biggest pre-seed funding round.
