E-commerce logistics startup Rider has expressed interest in acquiring BlueEx (PSX: GEMUNSL), Reuters reported.
Rider’s CEO Salman Allana said, “We are carving out and acquiring the e-commerce logistics business which currently operates under the brand name BlueEx. This is not an acquisition of Universal Network System Limited as a whole”.
This will be the first large acquisition of a company listed on the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) board of the Pakistan Stock Exchange.
While Rider has not disclosed how much it intends to put into the BlueEx purchase, the company believes that the acquisition will place Rider as the third largest player in the e-commerce logistics industry. “That already puts us ahead of certain legacy players. Our contenders in the top three are legacy businesses who have maintained their lead through nationwide services,” the CEO added.
He further informed that the BlueEx purchase would allow Rider to cater one million monthly orders for over 3,000 merchants across 700 delivery locations.
Notably, Rider has received $5.4 million in funding to date from YCombinator, Global Founders Capital, Flexport Fund, i2i Ventures, Fatima Gobi Ventures, Soma Capital, Rebel Fund, TPL e-Ventures, and others.
News of Rider’s interest in BlueEx has sparked some relief for the domestic startup scene which has endured a tough time since 2023 started. Venture funding in Pakistan fell 87.7 percent year on year to $6.8 million in the third quarter of 2023, from $55 million in the same period the previous year due to a global funding crunch and troubling macroeconomic and political conditions in the South Asian nation.
