It’s 3 am at night, you’re craving hot Cheetos.
No nearby shop is open, you can’t just order one pack of chips and end up paying more on delivery than the product itself.
You don’t want to wait 45 minutes to get your chips.
What to do?
Krave Mart comes to the rescue, ensuring 10 minutes of delivery with no delivery charges. Yes, you heard it right!
Krave Mart is a quick grocery delivery service launched on December 1st, 2021. It is currently operating in five areas of Karachi and is in the process of expanding to 12 others. The startup ensures delivery takes place within 10 minutes in an up to three-kilometre radius in Karachi.
The founders of Krave mart understood the need of the time and fulfilled it with their expertise, unmatched resources, ample experience, and a thorough understanding of the Pakistani market.
The marketing has been very smart. Their focus was on sanitary products and contraceptives. There still exists shame in buying these items. Also, when you’re in need of one, you want it right away.
Get them delivered to your doorstep in 10 minutes. Does it get better than this? No doubt Krave mart got popular within no time.
A few weeks after its launch, pre-seed funding of $6 million was announced. It was by far the largest early funding a Pakistan based startup had raised. But, with the ever-growing startup ecosystem of Pakistan, it now stands second to Tazah, a fresh produce marketplace, that closed its pre-seed funding round on $6.5 million two days ago, on December 21st, 2021.
But one may question, startups after all are private entities, how does their success affect the country?
Well, Krave Mart closing $6 million is as good for Pakistan as it is for them. Here’s how.
Stimulates an interest of global investors in Pakistan’s startup ecosystem
Krave Mart raising $6 million builds the narrative of the booming tech ecosystem in Pakistan, to the international audience. Pakistan startups are high on global investors’ radar, as they raised a record $310 million in different financing levels from across the world by the 10th of December 2021.
This year we saw the sorts of Better Tomorrow ventures, Capital Ventures, Quiet Capital, Tiger Global and more global investors pouring money into Pakistan’s tech sector. Many of these investors have been the initial investors of Google, Facebook, Spotify and other tech giants.
People who baulked at investing in Pakistan before are now queuing up to bet big on the 220-million-strong South Asian nation.
Creates a favourable environment for upcoming startups
Krave Mart’s successful early financing round makes Pakistan a potential candidate for Foreign investors. It thus builds a favourable environment for upcoming startups. The financial stability Krave Mart has created makes the startup sector a safe space for newcomers.
Simplifies legal aspects of launching a startup in Pakistan
Earlier, excessive taxation, constraints on capital flows and bureaucratic headaches presented significant challenges for growing tech startups. This funding frenzy in the startup sector has made the government more vigilant towards its small business policies. Measures were taken to ease the regulatory environment for businesses.
Pakistan recently passed six reforms in this domain. Companies can now be registered in one day. Three-year tax relief was provided. An online one-stop registration and tax payment system was introduced. The time required to get construction permits, to register commercial properties and electrical connections has been reduced to half. Time to export for border compliance and Imports for documentary compliance also reduced.
These reforms appear to be effective as Pakistan’s position in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report jumped from 136th place in 2018 to 108th place in 2019.
Generates massive job opportunities in Pakistan
Krave mart promises a quick 10 minute delivery for groceries and house essentials. In order to deliver what it promises, it needs to have dark stores and riders among every community of a city.
According to the statement, Krave Mart, which launched its services in December, currently covers 25 % of Karachi’s population and aims to bring that number to 100% by January 2022. Kassim Shroff, Founder and CEO of Krave mart, stated, “By end of January or early February 2022, we would start operations in Lahore and then move on to Islamabad.”
Krave mart works on a hub and spoke model. A hub is a centre that receives and distributes goods to smaller locations owned by the company. These are called spokes that are located in small communities to quickly deliver.
Krave Mart stated that each hub creates jobs for 80 people and it aims to build 100 hubs per city. As it expands to 10 major countries of Pakistan in 2022, it would be creating up to 8000 job opportunities.
Reforms Pakistan’s Economy
Pakistan has seen more money flow into its nascent technology sector during 2021 than in the previous six years combined. Many global venture capital firms have invested in Pakistan for the first time in the current wave. This elevates Pakistan’s economy to new heights.
The rise of digital startups and their progress in the last some years has been quite vibrant. According to McKinsey & Co’s latest report on the Pakistani ecosystem, Pakistan has become one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia.
Upgrades living standards in Pakistan
Pre-covid, Traditional e-commerce deliveries through online ordering were becoming popular. However, the average delivery time was around 3–5 business days. Incentives of free delivery were given to encourage larger orders.
The pandemic helped push online grocery shopping into the mainstream, quick-commerce became a necessity in lockdown days. It raised the trend of instant deliveries of small amounts of food and goods from relatively local stockrooms or hubs.
It is easier to have such services operate in gated communities since addresses are messed up and usually not on the map in many local neighbourhoods. Krave Mart’s instant deliveries facilitate the residents of all communities. It puts all addresses on the map and makes other deliveries easier as well. Thus increasing accessibility and extending services to every corner of every city.
Creates presence of Pakistan in International markets
A statement from Krave mart read, “We are looking to create a social impact in the q-commerce landscape by serving 100 million households consisting of our employees, partners, riders, and customers across South East Asia.”
A few years back, Pakistan was seen as a perpetually messed economy, poverty-ridden, and an unsafe country to visit. Previously, Pakistan-founded tech companies weren’t majorly operating in Pakistan itself, let alone internationally.
Krave mart’s international expansion would mark a footprint of Pakistani startups globally. This would not only uplift Pakistan’s economy but change the narrative of the world about Pakistan.
Pakistan is the 5th largest market in the world which comprises a rising consumer class, presenting enormous investment opportunities. The Pakistani market can become a hub for startup investments and with so many startups emerging and growing every year, hopefully, Pakistan will shortly have its Nexicons and Unicorns.