Karachi-based business-to-business raw materials marketplace Zaraye has raised $2.1M in a pre-seed round led by Tiger Global and Zayn Capital. Other investors include +92 Ventures, Alan Rutledge, Jack Rizvi, and current and former Careem employees holding key positions in their tenures.
This marks Zaraye’s first round of funding and Tiger Global’s first pre-seed investment in Pakistan. Founded in late 2021 by IBA class fellows Taha Iqbal Teli, Hashair Junaid Ahmedani, and Ahsan Ali Khan, Zaraye helps manufacturing businesses procure raw materials and finance the working capital. It is currently serving clients across the textile and construction industries, with over 300 partners and suppliers spread out in 20+ cities.
Ahsan Ali Khan, co-founder, and CEO of Zaraye commented: “We aim to strengthen the backbone of the country’s economy by helping the entrepreneurs in finding avenues to optimize and scale. Zaraye will help our partners to compete locally and globally as they find more savings in time and money to create the best products. With the confidence of amazing investors in Zaraye, we are geared to supercharge our mission to reach millions of users”
Traditionally a manufacturer would connect with a handful of intermediaries or directly with the suppliers with a tedious process of going through multiple phone calls, and wait for them to furnish rates. This process is long, tedious, and brings very limited options for the buyers to make a decision. With Zaraye, buyers of raw materials can simply post their requirements for the required product and the relevant suppliers can furnish quotes in real-time making the information for buying decisions vast and quick. At the same time, the suppliers can access consolidated demand volumes with the vast network of buyers on Zaraye’s platform.
Hashair Junaid Ahmedani, co-founder of Zaraye added: “Small and medium business owners have been trapped in a cycle of high competition and lack of financing options- Zaraye aims to help these businesses scale as they find the efficiencies in procurement and financing options to make better decisions for their businesses.”
Taha Iqbal Teli, co-founder of Zaraye said “Our goal is to help these entrepreneurs focus on manufacturing and selling their products. Zaraye will handle the entire procurement process, all the way from getting quotes, assuring quality, and delivering to their doorsteps with any after-sales assistance our partners might require. Our partners remain at the heart of all our endeavors and we believe this massive problem cannot be solved without a world-class team. As we build great solutions for our customers, we are always on the lookout for great talent and I would encourage everyone who feels passionately about building solutions at scale that make lives easy and loved by customers to apply away.”
