Bazaar secures $100m in funding, eyes growth with Keenu acquisition

KARACHI: Bazaar Technologies is on track to achieve profitability in the upcoming quarters, marking a significant milestone for the five-year-old startup striving to establish Pakistan’s largest e-commerce and fintech platform.

Founded in 2020 by Hamza Jawaid and his high school friend Saad Jangda, Bazaar aims to create a comprehensive service for Pakistan’s populous market, similar to China’s Alibaba Group and South America’s MercadoLibre. The company took a step towards this goal with the recent acquisition of digital payments provider Keenu.

Backed by Tiger Global Management, Bazaar exemplifies the emerging Pakistani tech scene, which has attracted prominent investors despite the country’s economic challenges. The startup has persisted despite several notable corporate failures and setbacks in recent years.

“Currently, we have a very strong financial position, which allowed us to proceed with this acquisition,” Jawaid told Bloomberg.

Since its inception, Bazaar has raised a total of $100 million through two funding rounds — a record for a Pakistani startup. Its investors include Defy Partners Management LLC, Wavemaker Partners LLC, and Dragoneer Investment Group.

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Jawaid stated that the company is not actively seeking additional funding at the moment, instead focusing on expanding its core services, which initially helped merchants manage inventory and operate their platforms. In 2024, Bazaar expanded into direct consumer sales.

With over half of Pakistan’s population under 30, Bazaar sees fintech as a key opportunity to attract tech-savvy users and develop an integrated shopping and payment ecosystem for Pakistan — a model similar to those used by Amazon and Alibaba in the US and China, respectively, to control the entire online experience for consumers and merchants.

The recent acquisition of Keenu connects merchants across more than 150 cities in Pakistan and also provides mobile wallets and digital payment solutions.