Online merchant financing heats up as Rider and CreditBook also join hands to expand SME lending

Two VC-funded startups catering to SMEs in the e-commerce space have partnered up to leverage their respective business models to boost sustainable growth. Rider is a logistics startup providing tech-driven delivery services to online merchants on the back of US$ 5.4 million in estimated funding to-date. While CreditBook is a digital platform catering to small businesses for managing their credit, sales and expense cycles with the aim of helping them gain access to financial services. The company has raised approximately US$12.5 million so far.

According to information shared by Rider, the 'strategic partnership will enable Rider to expand its "cash on pickup" model, providing working capital solutions to its 1000+ active merchants to help them grow'. In his latest interview, the company's CEO Salman Allana shared his perspective and interesting insights on the current state of Pakistan's startup ecosystem which point towards the factors behind such partnerships.

In recent months, the publicly-listed logistics player BlueEX (listed as Universal Network System Limited) and leading financial platform Abhi deepened their finance and logistics collaboration with the fintech reportedly acquiring a 20% equity stake in the e-commerce delivery company. Just a few days ago, Retailpedia.PK reported that PostEx has obtained a Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC) license allowing it to directly offer financial services to online merchants.