Clicky, a Lahore-based fashion e-commerce platform, raised $700,000 in a pre-Series A round, announced today in a statement. The investment came from Asif Keshodia of Souq/Amazon, Xiaomi’s unidentified executives, and some other individual investors. Souq (which was purchased by Amazon in 2017) and local VC Fatima Ventures have previously raised money from Clicky.
Clicky was founded by Muhammad Khalid and Syed Shahzad in 2016 and sells fashion items with an emphasis on clothing and footwear. Muhammad Khalid, CEO of Clicky, told that his catalogue contains a mix of local and international labels as well as white label items with the SKUs available on the platform reaching 20,000.
The start-up has fulfilment centers in Lahore and Rawalpindi and ships orders using various logistics facilities from third parties. To further develop its fulfilment, logistics and customer service infrastructure, a portion of the investment will be used.
Clicky refused to share the figures with his clients and orders, but said they were increasing very fast.
“The new funds will be used to grow a team of fashion designers for home-grown labels,” it said. It also said that it will now concentrate on collaborating directly with suppliers and creating private labels across various fashion categories.
Commenting on the investment, Asif Keshodia said that I am delighted to be part of this start-up in Pakistan. Clicky will take the experience of consumers to new heights and meet the increasing demand in the area for online fashion shopping. Here we see a big opportunity to look at popular online fashion destinations introduced in other countries, such as Asos in the UK, Zalando in Germany, and Net-A-Porter in France. With local investors being stakeholders, this is a testament to the confidence that exists in the country’s tremendous consumer potential for e-commerce.
Ali Mukhtar, Fatima Ventures founder who sits on the board of Clicky, said, “Khalid and Shahzad have been developing a centered e-commerce company and we are excited to see how this investment can offer local brands and private labels opportunities to expand and provide Pakistani customers with a high-quality fashion retail experience.”
