Islamabad December 21 2021: Pakistan-based agri-supply chain platform, Jiye Technologies has raised $2.5 M in its pre-seed funding round. The round saw participation from Sarmayacar represented by Rabeel Warraich, Access Bridge Ventures represented by Issa Aghabi, Jabbar Internet Group represented by Samih Toukan, EquiTie represented by Ahmed El Hamawy, and Seedstars represented by Charlie Graham-Brown with further involvement from a strategic angel network hailing from MENAP, Europe & North America.
Founded by Ali Amin (Ex-Careem & Swvl), Osama Salman (Ex Unilever & Swvl ), and Ahmed Bilal Afzal (10 Years + supply chain experience) Jiye is set out to revolutionize the agri-supply chain in a country. The founders bring strategic backgrounds of conventional Agri trade, supply chain & early-stage startup scaling to form the formidable trio. Jiye technologies aims to revolutionize the agri-sector in Pakistan by giving farmers easier access to major markets and convenient sourcing to retailers through lean supply chain ecosystems.
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Their combined experience in conventional agricultural trading, supply chain management, and early-stage startup growth make them a strong team. It is the goal of Jiye technologies to transform Pakistan's agri-food business by making it easier for Pakistani farmers to access large markets and more convenient for merchants to get their products. An additional goal for the firm is boosting financial inclusion and linking the vast group to formal financial systems by using fintech solutions.
Jiye Technologies, Pakistan's fastest-growing agri-supply chain platform, has grown by more than 30 times in just five months with a rapidly expanding workforce of 150+. For the $120 billion market in MENA, they plan to expand outside Pakistan in 2022.
Pakistan has the fifth-largest population in the world, with 56 million acres of crop-able land – one of the highest in the world – but the country's agricultural industry has increased just 2% YOY over the previous decade, which the firm sees as a challenge and an opportunity at the same time.
Jiye Technologies is aiming to rethink Pakistan's ailing agro supply chain, thereby affecting around 70 percent of Pakistan's population and transforming a sector that contributes more than 19 percent to the country's GDP.
Co-founder Ali Amin of Jiye Technologies comes from a farming background. Ali, a former Careem and Swvl co-founder, said, "We're driven by effect; we like to make positive change in categories which influence the people in Pakistan, thus we chose to remedy a situation that touches over 70% of the country's population." Jiye Technologies co-founder Ahmed Bilal Afzal, a supply chain expert with more than ten years of expertise in logistics and supply chain management, remarked,
Seeing Pakistan's supply chain problems grow out of control, I always wanted to use my knowledge to help the masses and take advantage of technology to make a larger effect. Co-founder of Jiye Technologies Osama Salman, who brings to the table a wealth of retail and quick scale-up Unicorn -swvl industry expertise, says,
This landscape presents an inconceivable potential for revolution because it has low to zero sophistication at all value chain touch points. " In the process of upsetting the conventional marketplace and enabling access to produce, we simultaneously attempt to construct an efficient supply chain till the retail level where ease of doing business has never been considered.. Communities in a country where 44% of disposable income is spent on food will benefit greatly from this strategy.
As Access Bridge Ventures' Managing Partner, Issa Aghabi reflected on the company's first investment in Pakistan and the future he sees.
To help potential businesses like Jiye Technologies achieve their goal of becoming category leaders, Access Bridge provides financial and strategic support. To disrupt the local farming supply chain, Jiye Technologies has assembled a team of experts with extensive experience in agricultural supply chain management. In addition to being our seventh investment this year, this is our first foray into Pakistan. In Pakistan, we have a lot of hope for the future and are eager to be a part of it.
This investment, along with Pre-Seed rounds by AgriTechs EasyFresh Technologies and Agriculture Republic, finally puts the Pakistani Agriculture sector on the map. With vast lands and immense untapped opportunity, possible through Tech and digitization, the Pakistani Agriculture sector is yet another uncharted territory for the VC world to explore.
The Agriculture sector in MENA was one of the hotspots for investors looking to back impact-driven startups, where AgriTechs based in MENA closed 6% of all impact-investment deals in MENA between 2016 and Q3 2021. There have been some interesting breakthroughs in the Agriculture industry across MENA this year marked by growth in funding.
Mostly concentrated between the UAE and KSA, 8 Agriculture startups raised 10 funding rounds across MENA in 2021 YTD. Two rounds by KSA-based Red Sea Farms, designing ingenuous Tech to tackle sustainable farming, drove the 4,100% YoY funding growth of the Agriculture sector in KSA, while this marks the 4th transaction closed by a UAE-based AgriTech by November 2021. In Turkey, the Agricultural sector has been observing a 3-year consecutive growth in funding, to grow capital deployed in the industry by more than 3,400% since 2018.
Turkey’s AgriTech funding rounds in 2021 exceeded $15M with the latest investment in AgriTech Tarfin, along with sizable rounds closed by two Tech-enabled smart farming startups Plant Factory and Hextech Green Makine, as well as one other finance-focused AgriTech AgrioFinans.
About Jiye Technologies
An agri supply chain platform founded by Ali Amin (Ex-Careem & Swvl), Osama Salman (Ex Unilever & Swvl), and Ahmed Bilal Afzal (10 Years+ supply chain experience) called Jiye Technologies.
When it comes to food, Pakistan is a country that has the 5th largest population and 56 million acres of crop-able land. Jiye's goal is to transform the supply chain in a country that spends more than 40% of its disposable income on food. The startup's goal is to improve food safety in the region by addressing supply chain inefficiencies from farm to retailer.
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