PriceOye Pakistan Acquires Early Investment From Co-founder PayPal

PriceOye Pakistan is one of the Islamabad-based businesses that has been selling goods including cellphones, TVs, and home appliances since its March 2020 launch. It was launched only two weeks before the global COVID-19 pandemic. This startup is inspired by China’s JD.com and India’s Flipkart in order to create a curated marketplace for consumer goods. The good piece of info is that PriceOye announced that it has acquired early investment from a wide range of investors, including PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.

PriceOye Pakistan Serviced 45 million Unique users in Pakistan

Pakistan’s eCommerce platform PriceOye.pk has raised $7.9 million in a series of seed funding round to consolidate its position as the leading electronics marketplace in the country. Justin Mateen’s venture capital firm, JAM Fund, led the company’s initial fundraising round. Other participants in the round of institutional fundraising included Beenext, DG Daiwa, Mantis VC, HOF Capital, Palm Drive Capital, an investor in Jet.com, and Atlas Ventures. Fatima Gobi Ventures, SOSV, and Artistic Ventures, angel investors such as Thiel, Immad Akhud of Mercury Bank, and Asif Keshodia of Souq were Previous investors. PayPal co-founder has never before invested in Pakistan.

The product recommendation engine is used by visitors for product research and has been one of the important drivers of bringing over 2 million monthly users to the PriceOye.pk’s platform. Adnan Shaffi who is the co-founder and CEO of the firm reported that in the past two years, PriceOye has serviced 45 million unique users in Pakistan, which is equal to 37.5% of the country’s overall internet user base. He stated that:

“We are the second most visited shopping website in the entire country, with over two and a half million monthly active users coming on the platform, doing research using our product recommendation engine, and then getting to know about different products”

Let’s get into the history of this startup. Adan and his brother Adeel Shaffi were in Southeast Asia when they came up with the idea for PriceOye. It was actually their third business after having exited two previously. After doing research on other Indonesian and Indian businesses, the two researchers found that comparable consumer internet trends were also occurring in these areas, however, at a slower rate. They concluded that in around four to five years, Pakistan will also have a comparable uptake of consumer internet services. This idea became the foundation for PriceOye.

PriceOye.pk has grown exponentially, posting 500% revenue growth year-on-year, making it one of the leading B2C eCommerce players in the country. With the new funding, the startup is poised to continue on its growth trajectory, adding new products and categories on the platform, and expanding its network of partners. PriceOye has plans to open physical experience centers in the nation, starting with three locations in high-end shopping malls in the major cities of Islamabad, Karachi, and Lahore. They will also introduce other product categories and services with the same name.

Pakistan’s consumer electronics market had an estimated spend of $8.5 billion in 2020 and has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 7.1% between 2016 and 2020. The growth of the consumer electronics market has resulted in the influx of subpar counterfeit products.

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