Pakistani ride-sharing and delivery startup Bykea raised $10 million to cater to rising demand
Bykea, a leading Pakistani ride-sharing and delivery startup, has raised a $10 million investment from its existing investors to deal with the rising demand for online services in the country.
The company said in a statement on Monday that it will use the capital to improve and extend its services for consumers and businesses, including food and e-commerce deliveries, as well as cash on delivery (COD), cash-pickup and verification services.
“With this fresh investment, we are excited to continue to serve our 5 million base of customers. We continue to provide them with an affordable and on-demand method of moving people, money, and parcels, while simultaneously providing livelihoods for over sixty thousand driver-partners every month,” said Muneeb Maayr, founder of Bykea.
Bykea’s major investors
Bykea investors include Prosus Ventures, MEVP, Sarmayacar, Tharros, and Ithaca Capital. Over the last two years, the company has recorded exponential growth in the three major cities it operates including Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.
A ‘great vote of confidence’
Bykea’s chief operating officer (COO) Rafiq Malik called the fresh funding a ‘great vote of confidence’ as the funding came at a time when Notable startups are announcing layoffs and scaling down operations due to rising inflation and oil prices.
“In these testing times this is a great vote of confidence,” Malik said in an interview to a leading newspaper on Monday.
Recently three other startups, Careem, SWVL, and Truk It In, either scaled down their services or laid off the workforce due to global and domestic economic downturns.
About Bykea
Bykea, which focuses on two-wheeler rides, has over 1.7 million active monthly users and around 60,000 driver-partners. The company offers services in Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad and is considered one of the few emerging startups in Pakistan to have gained attention from global venture investors at a time when mobile services are gaining popularity in the country as well as around the globe.
Bykea founder Muneeb Maayr said the fresh funding would help serve the company’s five million customers and provide opportunities to over 60,000 riders.
Maayr said the company was particularly proud of being able to consistently deliver on three key ingredients, including rapid growth that was five times its pre-pandemic scale, profitability in mobility, and the versatility of the largest motorbike fleet in the country.