Islamabad August 18 2021: Airlift said that it has raised USD 85 million in its Series B financing round at a valuation of USD 275 million or PKR 45.1 billion, which is greater than the current worth of PTCL and Netsol Technologies. The company is priced at half of TRG and System Limited value in just one year time.
Harry Stebbings of 20VC and Josh Buckley of Buckley Ventures co-led the financing round, which is by far the largest for a Pakistani startup.
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Sam Altman, former president of Y Combinator, Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter and Medium, Steve Pagliuca, co-chairman of Bain Capital, Jeffrey Katzenberg, ex-chief executive of Disney and Quibi, and Taavet Hinrikus, founder and chief executive of TransferWise also participated in the new round, which brings the startup’s to-date raise to USD 110 million.
Stanley Tang, co-founder of DoorDash, Simon Borrero, founder and chief executive of Rappi, Baastian Lehman, founder and chief executive of Postmates, Quiet Capital and Indus Valley Capital also participated in the new round.
A one-year-old startup that is attempting to build the railroads for e-commerce in Pakistan has just secured a mega round of funding in a major boost to the South Asia nation’s nascent startup ecosystem.
Airlift operates a quick commerce service in eight cities including Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad in Pakistan. Users can order groceries, fresh produce, other essential items including medicines as well as sports goods from Airlift website or app and have it delivered to them in 30 minutes.
Airlift started as a transit business, building a service similar to Uber for air conditioned-buses in Pakistan. The startup quick amassed traction, clocking over 35,000 rides a day. And then the pandemic arrived, disrupting all mobility in the country.
