PostEx, which aims to solve cash on delivery, has completed a seed round led by MSA Capital.

MSA Capital led the seed round, which was joined by Zayn Capital, Shorooq Partners, VentureSouq, PNO Ventures, 92Ventures, and Yasser Bashir. PostEx, a Pakistan-based financial technology and logistics startup, has announced the raising of $1.5 million in seed funding from leading institutional investors to address the challenges of Cash on Delivery with instant and upfront payments by scaling its one-stop shop for financing and logistics solutions for e-commerce platforms.

MSA Capital, a worldwide venture capital firm that has previously invested in Uber, Klarna, Nubank, and Swvl, lead the round. The round was also attended by UAE-based Shorooq Partners, Pakistan-focused Zayn Capital, VentureSouq, PNO Ventures, and 92Ventures. Yasser Bashir, CEO of Pakistan-based Arbisoft, also attended as an angel investor.

Running an internet company in a mainly cash-based economy has difficulties such as cash recovery periods, which impede growth due to working capital limitations. In addition, last-mile delivery challenges result in significant cancellations, and a lack of funding alternatives hampers the development of e-commerce companies in Pakistan. PostEx solves these issues by offering upfront payment on Cash on Delivery (COD) orders, which is supplemented with an efficient in-house logistics fleet for e-commerce companies, allowing them to expand by giving simple and immediate access to cash and liquidity.

Omer Khan, Co-Founder and CEO of PostEx, said, "Pakistan’s e-commerce landscape is rapidly evolving and lack of access to financing opportunities is hampering the growth of online merchants and e-commerce landscape broadly. Our goal is to be the first and last source of funds of fast-growing e-commerce businesses to meet all their capital requirements to accelerate their growth."

"With fresh funds and a capacity to provide over $50 million a year in financing to companies, we are on a mission to change the face of lending in Pakistan," he said.

PostEx developed a digital payments solution that allows companies to collect payments from customers online using PostEx's checkout plugins in response to the growing number of digital payments.

According to Tim Chen of MSA Capital, "tThe rapid growth of e-commerce in Pakistan is being held back by high levels of COD. PostEx’s integrated instant payments with logistics is a model we have backed globally to resolve the hurdles posed by CoD and believe that Omer and team have the execution capabilities to build a regional leader."

With a growing number of merchants selling their products online, PostEx's all-encompassing financial product and digital payments, supplemented by logistics, offer the ideal moat and position it uniquely as a one-stop shop for e-commerce.

"PostEX is solving key problems for the rapidly scaling e-commerce market in Pakistan through its factoring and logistics solution. Their innovative approach creates stickiness with retailers, providing them last mile and working capital solutions eventually becoming their financial products solutions provider," said Faisal Aftab, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Zayn Capital.

"For us at Shorooq Partners, Post-Ex represents the perfect intersection for our views on the potential of the Pakistani market as well as our deep appreciation for infrastructure support organizations in the eCommerce industry. A fantastic team building the right product that eliminates clear complexities facing many merchants looking to grow their eCommerce businesses" said Tamer Azer, a Partner at Shorooq Partners.

PostEx, founded by Omer Khan, Saad Mahmood, Babar Razzaq, and Adil Naseem, intends to use the money to expand its offerings and add depth to its current technology-based COD financing platform. It now employs over 150 people and intends to expand its workforce as it expands to additional customers and services.