Pakistani startup Zarya is based in Lahore. Their provide their social ecommerce platform to businesses. They recently raised $1.7 million in their pre-seed funding round.
Zarya is founded by brothers Faisal and Saad Zahid. Faisal is a former director of product management at Careem and was senior director of product management at Saudi grocery delivery startup Nana. While Saad led operations for several businesses in Pakistan ranging from industrial-scale farms to steel manufacturing
The pre-seed round was led by Raed Ventures and participants included Fatima Gobi Ventures, US-based Class 5 Global, Global Founders Capital, and Egyptian social commerce startup Taager.
Pakistani Startup Zarya wants to “eliminate the friction small-scale sellers face in sourcing products, arranging delivery and collecting payment“. And big proportion of their customers are the housewives doing side hustling while living inside.
The app has over 3,000 items at the moment, of which a significant portion is women’s and children’s clothing. They will be expanding to include new categories such as abayas, shoes, socks, home textiles and makeup.