The customers seem to have liked the idea. In just a few months of business, Oware has already signed on more than 30 businesses that have been attracted by offering a warehousing and distribution network that is within reach of 75% of Pakistan’s population on same day delivery. The company aims to reach 90% by the end of the year.
Recently a supply chain start-up business Oware says Fixing Pakistan’s outdated logistics infrastructure will help the country’s businesses grow and expand the economy, also with an announcement of $3.3 million seed financing round. In last June the company, discovered that, it promises to help businesses grow sales through is more flexible warehousing and smarter distribution. On this Oware founder Adil Nisar explains that, “Our solution to that problem is based on a shared infrastructure that enables businesses to build sales without substantially increasing their costs. The aim is to level the playing field for Pakistani businesses, because it’s currently only the large multinationals that have access to modern systems”.
Raza Kazmi and Adil Nisar Oware founders argued that businesses across Pakistan are being held back by archaic logistics systems.
Raza Kazmi and Adil Nisar Oware founders argued that businesses across Pakistan are being held back by archaic logistics systems.
They struggle to secure new warehousing capacity to store inventory, the founders say, find it difficult to monitor their inventory and face complex delivery problems. Later on, Raza Kazmi also said that, “Local businesses remain trapped in an archaic and opaque environment dealing with antiquated supply chain systems that are no longer fit for purpose and remain slow, limited, and capital intensive. The time to set up operations is too long, there is limited visibility or tracking of orders, and the execution of processes is inefficient in terms of speed and cost, which we are on a mission to solve”. In this context, Oware’s solutions are essentially three-fold.
First, the business has opened 15 warehouses in four cities, offering 500,000 sq.ft space for rent so that Businesses can sign up to lease the space they need at any of these facilities, instead of finding warehousing for themselves. Meanwhile Nisar added, “To get to its end destination, a product has to move between several warehouses, fulfilment centres and trucks. This complex ballet is managed by multiple businesses without interconnected systems. Our vision is to build a large scale connected world of distribution that enables a faster route to market for our customers.” In addition to this Oware provides a delivery service of moving businesses goods from warehouse to customers such as retailers and fulfillment centers, tailored to their orders.
This business-to-business delivery is important in a country, where competition for last-mile delivery to the consumer has improved performance in recent times, but where previous stages of distribution have been ignored. Further Michel Friedman a partner at Reflect Ventures, one of the investors says, “Oware brings a huge archaic industry straight into the 21st century world of on-demand flexibility and management visibility and insight. This is a big opportunity for Oware and an important part of the rapid ongoing modernisation of Pakistan’s economy.”
This is a big opportunity for Oware and an important part of the rapid ongoing modernisation of Pakistan’s economy.”