Airlift raises $85m in Series B funding round

Dubai - Within 12 months of launch, Airlift has scaled operations to 30+ retail properties across 8 cities and is now delivering hundreds of thousands of orders every month.

Airlift, a Pakistani technology startup — pioneering quick commerce — secured $85 million in Series B financing, making it the highest in the country. The startup is building the rails of commerce, offering consumers 30-minute delivery of all household essentials from a network of dark stores.

Within 12 months of launch, Airlift has scaled operations to 30+ retail properties across eight cities and is now delivering hundreds of thousands of orders every month.

Pakistan is “in the very early stages, but the transformation is happening very, very quickly and we are seeing a shift in behaviour,” Airlift co-founder Usman Gul said in an interview to Bloomberg. “We have a lot of people who previously didn’t shop online.”

Airlift's Series B financing marks the largest in the Mena region, co-led by Josh Buckley (Buckley Ventures) and Harry Stebbings (20VC). Other major participants included Sam Altman (ex-President YCombinator), Biz Stone (Co-founder at Twitter / Medium), Jeffrey Katzenberg (ex-CEO, Disney), Taavet Hinrikus (Founder/CEO at TransferWise), and Seve Pagliuca (Co-Chairman, Bain Capital).

Shams Pasha, Brand Strategy Lead, Airlift Technologies, said: “We are really excited about the technology-based Pakistani startup ecosystem and believe that it holds much promise. There are three main reasons behind this belief: the untapped potential, the investment flywheel impact, and the powerhouse Pakistani talent!"

— sandhya@khaleejtimes.com