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Zohaib Ali
Co-Founder at Dastgyr | Forbes30Under30 | x Airlift
Zohaib Ali is the Co-Founder and CEO of Dastgyr, a B2B marketplace based in Pakistan that connects small-scale retailers with manufacturers and suppliers. The platform aims to streamline procurement processes for retailers, allowing them to save significantly on costs and offering flexible payment options.
Background and Education
Zohaib graduated from the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics. Before co-founding Dastgyr, he gained valuable experience working with Airlift Technologies and Pepperstone, contributing to his expertise in the startup ecosystem.
Dastgyr's Mission
Dastgyr focuses on addressing the inventory procurement challenges faced by over two million retailers in Pakistan and the MENA region. The platform not only facilitates connections between buyers and sellers but also enhances efficiency in the supply chain, making it easier for retailers to manage their inventory needs.123
Highlights
A stellar news in all its glory!
This year, we let several sellers on our platform sell to global markets using Dastgyr’s Seller app.
🥭Millions of dollars worth of Mangoes were exported from Pakistan, enabling sellers to earn dollar-denominated income and triple their revenues compared to selling on our local platform.
We're just getting started! Kudos to the whole team involved!
If you are an SMB with products that you would want to sell to over 6 countries, reach out to us at [email protected]!
#DastgyrgoesGlobal #Innovation #revolutionisingtrade #globalimpact
I’m humbled to share that we at Dastgyr have closed our Series A round of $37m led by VEON, which puts us further along our journey to disrupt B2B trade.
We started Dastgyr with a vision to become the Alibaba for emerging markets, working at the intersection of marketplace, logistics, and capital. And the unwavering support we’ve gathered from sellers, retailers, investors, and our partners has been phenomenal.
Macroeconomic conditions have been tough, and it’s only going to get tougher. However, Dastgyr is primed to get through this downturn almost painlessly. We always believed in healthy fundamentals: keeping our burn multiple in check, maintaining a lean team, and building an asset-light marketplace that is inherently capital-efficient.
In this round, we’re joined by new partners including Zinal Growth, DEG, Khwarizmi Ventures, OTF Jasoor Ventures, Cedar Mundi, Reflect Ventures, Century Oak Capital, Hi2 Global, GoingVC, Astir Ventures, K3 Diversity Ventures, Chandaria Capital, along with founders of Property Finder, Ayoconnect, Quiqup, and senior management from DoorDash.
Existing investors and early believers SOSV, Edgebrook Partners, and EquiTie have doubled down as well.
With VEON as our lead investor, we’re looking forward to exploring many synergies, since it owns Pakistan’s largest telco Jazz and Pakistan’s largest fintech JazzCash. This corporate venture partnership will enable Dastgyr to scale faster than ever before.
I want to thank each and every one of these teams for putting their faith in Dastgyr. It means the world to have so many supporters on our mission to uplift SMEs in the retail value chain.
Of course, none of this would have been possible without the relentless efforts of our team, who have proven themselves to be some of the best operators in the entire region.
Today, I’m pausing to reflect and be grateful for everything we’ve achieved. Allah has been very kind.
Tomorrow, we’re back on the grind to build towards bigger and bigger milestones. 🚀
Huge thanks to Khairil, Santiago, Nayab, Vivek, Guillaume, Anurag, Ismail AlHarthi, Moosa, Bassel, Niklas, William Bao Bean, Hiruy, Pritesh, Ahmed, Dalia, Akif, Andy, Bassel, Michael, Jake, Bernard, Michel, Dan, Jor, Rishaad, Morgan, Arjun, Abdulaziz, Quoc, Alishan, Arif, Hassan, Abdullah AlJathlani, Gautam, Jerry, Gloria(Yici) Z.!
