Sabzi.pk founded by Farooq Haider, Aown Abbas and Muhammad Awais, closed its seed funding from the owners of a large Pakistani retail conglomerate at USD 7.5 Million, which is the highest value fetched by an LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship (LCE) company for seed round funding. It is a startup accelerated by LCE that provides an online and phone based fruits and vegetables delivery service for household consumers and corporate customers in the HORECA sector. By procuring directly from farmers and mandis, sabzi.pk is able to deliver fruits and vegetables to its customers at their doorsteps at prices usually cheaper than most retail outlets.
Sabzi.pk has been growing north of 100% month over month, growing its customer base primarily in Lahore for now. Aside from same day delivery of fresh fruits and vegetables to the consumer’s door steps, the company has started deliveries to hotels and restaurants in Lahore also. With a constant effort to increase procurement directly from farmers, Sabzi.pk is able to deliver the goods to its customers at highly competitive prices while ensuring highest quality and grade of the fruits and vegetables.
Farooq Haider, CEO of Sabzi.pk, while commenting on the funding said, “We had multiple offers for the six figures seed capital investment we were seeking but decided to go with the investors we thought most complemented our business from a strategic standpoint. The capital will primarily be used to build HR capacity, streamline our supply chain and customer relationship operations and marketing the sabzi.pk brand.”
Sabzi.pk is already planning to expand its operations in other major cities of Pakistan to cater to an ever-expanding demand from both consumers and corporate customers. “I want to turn Sabzi.pk into a national brand and trading platform that doesn’t only benefit our customers but also improves the lives and livelihoods of Pakistani farmers as we increase direct-from-farm procurement and reduce or eliminate their dependence on multiple intermediaries,” Farooq further commented.
Khurram Zafar, Executive Director, LCE said while commenting on the deal:
“Farooq’s passion for his start-up, the work ethic he instilled in Sabzi.pk’s team, constant drive to make the business better and accumulate happy customers, are all key ingredients for business success. I am happy that local, Pakistani investors are beginning to value the importance of good founders and growth potential of new startups. Farooq has made us all proud and we wish his venture great success,”
For placing orders at sabzi.pk, customers can visit hereor call their call center at 0304-111-5-111.
