Sybrid announces investment in Islamabad based startup Shopsy.pk, an online shopping search engine that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to help shoppers in Pakistan find the best price for any product online. This round of funding will help Shopsy further develop their technology and scale the platform nationally.
The deal is part of Sybrid’s broader plan to invest and build competencies in areas of strategic interest. The company has been focused on empowering innovative startups and entrepreneurs that can transform and improve the current environment of doing business in the country.
“Shopsy’s mission is to become the first point of contact for online shopping in Pakistan, just the way Google is for web search,” said Usama Arjumand, Co-founder & CEO, Shopsy. “This investment from Sybrid will allow us to scale quickly towards achieving our vision of transforming the e-commerce landscape in Pakistan”.
Ather Imran, CEO Sybrid, said on this occasion, “We are thrilled to partner up with Shopsy.pk; a great product, a brilliant team of founders and addressing a market that has huge potential. We strongly believe that our investment will not only help Shopsy scale as a platform and brand but it will also enable us to build our competencies in technologies around e-commerce, which is one of the core areas identified for the company’s growth in the coming years”.
The idea of Shopsy.pk was born when its Cofounder & CEO, Usama Arjumand, returned to his hometown (Islamabad) after spending more than a decade in the United Kingdom. An avid online shopper, Usama was disappointed with the lack of choice offered by e-commerce stores in Pakistan. As an experienced entrepreneur with three prior startups and a successful exit in the UK, Usama identified a tremendous opportunity to put his skill set and experience to use. He conceived the idea of a platform that would combine product data across Pakistan’s most trusted online stores under one platform – a Google for online shopping.
Shopsy is driven by a team of technology mavens: Faraz Khalid has joined as the Head of AI and has extensive experience in machine learning, deep learning and image processing. Sanjay Kumar has joined as the Head of Platform Engineering. Sanjay is a full-stack engineer with expertise in microservices architecture and building scalable applications.
With 1 million+ products across all categories, Shopsy.pk is offering one of the largest product selections in Pakistan. As part of the agreement, Shopsy will operate from within Sybrid’s offices in Islamabad and Karachi. CEO Sybrid, Ather Imran and Head of Digital Services, Faheem Arif Padela, will join Shopsy’s Board of Directors.
About Sybrid
Sybrid is a leading provider of Technology Solutions from Software Products, Managed Services, Digital Assets and Brand Management and Customer Services Delivery to businesses ranging from large enterprises to small startups. Sybrid has offices in major cities of Pakistan, and also has subsidiaries in USA and UAE. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lakson Group, which is one of the largest business conglomerates of Pakistan.
