In Pakistan, 80% of the population travels via Auto Rickshaws. A startup named Travly saw a need in this space and decided to capitalize on this.
Travly started off as a one stop shop for rickshaw commuters and has since expanded into buses, taxis and cargo services. They were incubated in Plan9 in the 3rd cycle and later accelerated at PlanX in 2014.
After 3 years of hardships and struggles they have now raised a seed investment of $ 200,000 by CresVentures, said a statement issued by the startup.
Co-founder of Travly, Talaal Burny shared:
This investment is what Travly needed to expand its operations into several territories. This investment is CresVentures first linear investment in the Pakistani industry.
He further added that this investment consolidates market validation. The numbers should show to local Angel Investors in Pakistan that what CresVentures has done can be replicated by others and generally this should be a moral boost for other Pakistani Angel Investors to have more faith in startups.
On hearing the news, Dr. Umar Saif, Chairman Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) said:
It is heartening to see such exemplary investable tech products coming out of Plan9 and PlanX that build the entrepreneurial eco-system in Pakistan. I hope this encourages the Angel community to invest in Pakistani startups that have the potential.
The Travly team comprises of 5 co-founders, Talaal Burny, Shahmir Khan, Faizan Khan, Mehmood Ali and Muhammad Zohaib.
“Having seen these boys work really hard over the last few years, they have set the bar high for their peers in the industry to follow. Their passion, determination and work ethic is worthy of applaud and perhaps it’s one of the reasons why they have raised seed funding today.” Mr. Nabeel A. Qadeer, Director Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development, PITB.
This is what Humayun Mazhar, CEO CresVentures had to say about this:
Travly tackles several issues concurrently. From a practical standpoint it introduces notions of convenience to the average rickshaw user, who currently resorts to hailing his/her ride physically by stepping out onto the street.
An overwhelming majority of rickshaw users are women, with children being next on the list – Travly empowers both users by giving them freedom of movement, something that they never had. Once I was convinced Travly had a model to ensure all these conveniences to the average Pakistani, there was no turning back.
He also added: “We were interested in working with Travly from the get-go. My takeaways from several interactions with the team were overwhelmingly positive and I see huge potential for Travly in the travel space. We like the people, the idea and the execution – it’s a recipe for success. We’re expecting to teach the team a few tricks while learning a few new ones ourselves.”
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Agar Travely 3 years main khud success nahi lay saki to jitnay marzi pesay day doo en koo yeh taraqi nahi ker saktay
Waise ye to hai kay kabhi inka naam tak nhi suna lekn ho sakta hai slow ‘khail’ rahay houn ye log aur ab khul kar khelain
dear pehlay news aye k sazbi pk nay $7.5 funding li jo tareek ka sab bara jhoot tha or ab new news aa gai, actulay i think new incubator like plan9 and lums have war and they are releasing fake news
The Sabzi.pk fiasco was overblown by their own stupidity. I was at this event today where Travly singed the agreement with CresVentures and it was legitimate. As for them being successful, people usually see that in terms of ROI. They have a different metric, which is social disruption. They have over 1000 rickshaws registered with them and are foraying in to women empowerment with Rickshaw Rani program. I think they more than deserve this money. The returns will come in time.
okay lets see, basicly time will decide funding is require for startups or not , i believe which startup have great business model they must grow even they have funds or not
Unbelievable if Travly has 1000+ Auto-Rikshaws in Lahore
I cant help but smile, at your “different metric” philosophy. And social disruption? Man, you need to reconsider your statements. Which one is closest competitor to rickshaw? Bike. Everyone has it. Rickshaws are alternative of what? family travel in taxi. Are rickshaws available round the clock, everywhere? Nearly yes. Why should anyone bother with travly? It suits only those royals who sometimes neeed to call a rickshaw to their home. Even then, such people have a car or driver+car and should need travly rarely.
Do you know why did Uber succeed? It provided affordable taxi late at night when drunk/tired people had to travel from bar/club etc back to their residence. Majority in US still does not afford personal cars. There might be more than 100,000 rickshaws in Lhr and Travly registered only 1000 of them. And these are just bare numbers. I will be surprised even if 50% of them actually work as partner drivers.
Right now, in Lhr, if you have to travel more than 5Km, you have to pay at least rs.200. This is the going rate these days. Why shouldnt i call for Uber then?
Sabzi wali evaluation to bilkul hi jhoot lag rhi hai. 7.5M ki evaluation pata nhi ks gadhay ne kardi hai
Good to hear that, Pakistan is moving forward.
Personally I appreciate the Travly Idea! It has more potential to grow. Don’t know why Travly is not investing on marketing?
Secondly, they need to have more Auto Rikshaws (1000-1500+ I guess, 5-10 in every town in Lahore), then improving their service/app structure plus proper marketing can enable them to lead!
this sawari need to be banned, instead of given seed funding to ruin the traffic system every where. this seed funding doesn’t mean sh!t. and you will probably never hear from them again. because once our pakistani gets free money, they suddenly feel themselves at top of sky’s and which ruin the motivation and enthusiasm of the idea it is originally intended for.
ur name tho…
You don’t even know the first thing about startups, entrepreneurship and VCs. VCs are not dumb to just giveaway .2 million dollars in one go. they will be giving this money in 5, 10 or even more stages as the startup attain specific measurable goals.
i was talking in general buddy, i know little about how it works. But even if i have the money and know everything, this is a real stupid idea to invest into, the people who are investing seems they have lot to throw away. God Bless them. They think they can create another Uber #LMAO. Let me give you a one lesson on startup, you know how you can notice anything about it and know whether to look further into the idea and invest, by looking at its stupid name.. Really “Travly” it will be more interesting if the name was “Chutyapa Li”. #ROFL. Plus it is not really wise to duplicate ideas. Come with something new if you want to succeed. (P.S Don’t tell me their idea of new is doing it with Rickshaw’s. That Doesn’t count.)
@usmanghani where are you now buddy. https://propakistani.pk/2016/08/12/travly-co-founder-joins-careem/
tommorow, i am also starting a company called “Chutyapa Li”, and will pay 2k to propakistani to promote it with false news.
and we don’t even know W T F is the startup is about , in decent detail !
who’s writing this crap !?
the startup was about, converting rickshaw’s to private g6 planes.
right …
nice try numbskull