Smallholder Agriculture | October 7, 2021

Tazah raises $2 million to connect Pakistan’s farmers to small food retailers

Jessica Pothering
ImpactAlpha Editor

Jessica Pothering

ImpactAlpha, October 7 – Tazah wants to streamline Pakistan’s $60 billion food supply chain and help farmers secure better prices by cutting out supply-chain middlemen. Farmers earn only 25% of the sale price of mangoes, for example.

“There is huge fragmentation on both supply and demand side, and it leads to suboptimal outcomes for both farmers and businesses,” founder Abrar Bajwa told ImpactAlpha.

Market inefficiencies, he adds, “translate into food price inflation, so customers also suffer.”

Bajwa, previously with the ride-sharing company Swvl, launched Tazah in July with Mohsin Zaka, formerly with ride-hailing and food delivery company Careem.

East Africa Fruits in Tanzania and WayCool in India also are helping small retailers more easily source fresh-food inventory.

Funding spree

Investors in Tazah’s pre-seed round include Global Founders, Zayn and Sunu Capital and i2i, Suya and Ratio Ventures.

Pakistan’s startups raised $173 million in the third quarter of 2021 – nearly three times the amount raised in all of 2020, according to data from i2i. Most of the capital is going into e-commerce deals.

Bajwa estimates there are more than 50 startups in Pakistan tackling issues in the agrifood value chain.