Jabberwock Ventures, the parent company of Cheetay Logistics and Swyft Distribution Solutions, has reportedly raised nearly $20 million in a Series-B round.
The market’s rumour mill previously suggested that Cheetay Logistics had raised up to $25 million in a Series-B round. According to Profit, the Series-B round’s size is less than but close to $20 million, and the funds were raised by Jabberwock Ventures rather than Cheetay or Swyft alone.
As a result, the funds would almost certainly be used to support the operations of both startups.
Profit spoke with Majid Khan, CEO of Jabberwock Ventures and Cheetay Logistics, to ascertain the round’s details. He, however, declined to comment, citing the company’s confidentiality issues.
Ahmad Khan and Majid Khan co-founded Cheetay in 2015 as an online food delivery platform. Cheetay was initially a food delivery rival to FoodPanda, but expanded into grocery delivery at the start of the pandemic last year, dropshipping groceries from physical stores to consumers.
It is also a competitor in the grocery delivery market, alongside FoodPanda, GrocerApp, Airlift, and 24Seven.pk.
Cheetay closed a $7.8 million Series-A round in September 2019, led by Jabberwock Ventures. Cheetay previously raised $3.8 million in Series-A round extensions, taking the company’s Series-A funding total to $11.6 million.
Swyft Distribution Solutions, on the other hand, is a shipment delivery company led by Muhammad Uns as chief executive officer. Majid Khan, CEO of Jabberwock, is also the director of Swyft Delivery Solutions. The startup began operations in late 2019.
Jabberwock Ventures’ Series-B round follows a spate of major funding rounds announced by Pakistani startups this year. Truck It In revealed earlier this month that it had raised $1.5 million in a pre-seed round.
SadaPay, a fintech firm, revealed last month that it had raised $7.2 million in a seed round, while the online B2B marketplace raised as much as $6.5 million in seed funding earlier this year.
Jabberwock’s Series-B round is one of the largest ever earned by a Pakistani startup. Bykea raised $13 million in their Series-B round last September.
Additionally, according to Crunchbase data, notable Series-B rounds were raised by Pakistani startups KeepTruckin, Zameen.com, and Careem, which raised $18 million, $9 million, and $10 million, respectively.