Pakistani AgriTech Jiye Technologies Seals $2.5M for MENA Expansion

With a staggering 56 million acres of arable land, Pakistan’s vast fields hold immense untapped potential for tech and digitisation. Venturing into uncharted territory for the VC world, Pakistan-based agritech, Jiye Technologies, is capitalising on this opportunity, reimagining the agriculture supply chain in Pakistan. Fueling its growth in the MENAP region, the startup has raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding with participation from EquiTie represented by Ahmed El Hamawy, Sarmayacar, Access Bridge Ventures, Jabbar Internet Group, Seedstars and a number of strategic angel investors from MENAP, Europe and North America.

Jiye technologies is leading a revolution in Pakistan’s agriculture sector, increasing farmer’s accessibility to major markets and providing retailers a lean supply chain ecosystem for streamlined sourcing, a necessary and vital innovation according to co-founder, Ahmed Bilal Afzal.

 “We saw the supply chain inefficiencies and its fallouts creating a downward spiral of issues for Pakistan,” Afzal says. “ I always wanted to leverage my experience to solve problems for the masses and capitalise on technology to create a larger impact”. 

The company was able to scale more than 30x in just five months, rapidly growing its team and even planning to expand to five major Pakistani cities. This success can be credited to a formidable founding team; Afzal has 10 years experience in supply chain, Ali Amin counts Careem and SWVL on his resume and Osama Salman brings experience from time spent at SWVL and Unilever. 

The newly acquired funds will help Jiye Technologies to launch new fintech solutions underpinned by a push for financial inclusion, with an 2020 MENA expansion plan also in the works.