There’s been a lot of talk about Airlift Technologies shutting down, and it’s been refreshing to hear insights and feedback from those from a wide array of individuals, from those who were settled abroad and came back to make an impact in Pakistan’s tech ecosystem, to IT stalwarts, to high-brass C Level professionals working in MNC’s and blue chip Pakistani companies, and industry stalwarts and big wigs.
There’s many parallels and striking differences one can draw from the reflections of local entrepreneurs in Pakistan and others though, namely ones who have seen the startup ecosystem blossom since the 3G/4G revolution in Pakistan since 2014. One could hardly imagine even then that food could be delivered to one’s house without cash being needed to be paid to the rider. Now we have many such food delivery services being facilitated by the likes of #FoodPanda, #Cheetay, #Byte, and #Careem, to name a few.
This is just one of the monumental changes brought on the system. And with plans for great change comes the imminent possibility of failure. We belong to a society that unfortunately looks down upon such hindrance. #EatMubarak entered the food delivery space with huge hopes and managed to market themselves well. I remember meeting Taha Anis from BioCare Labs to discuss a potential collaboration with Sehat back in the day, and I was thoroughly impressed with his entrepreneurial vision. Little did I know he would end up joining EatMubarak as a cofounder, only to have that project scrapped a few years later.
And now we come to Airlift. A startup that had humble beginnings sitting in the Fatima Ventures office in DHA, Lahore. A startup that was envisioned by Usman Gul and later invested in by a handful of VCs, including Atif Awan’s Indus Valley. Their bus services was quite a lucrative model – even more impressive was the fact that the vast majority of its customer base was “digital”, as fares on the buses weren’t in cash but rather through digital payments, namely JazzCash and EasyPaisa. They even offered an attractive on-bus advertising plan for other brands, which ventured on certain routes and attracted those “digital” consumers who could potentially be more receptive to using online shopping than other traditional viewers of OOH or DOOH advertising, as well those traditional viewers who would see those buses on the main traffic-congested, central areas of Lahore and Karachi. I remember when Abbas from Airlift pitched me those solutions. I initially touched base with him from his days at Careem, when he was pitching Careem to Business – I was honored to have been invited to speak on their panel for their launch in Lahore in 2018 alongside Omar Moeen Malik from Telenor and Omair Zeeshan from FInja
Then, Covid-19 happened. An unprecedented era where infections of a singular disease had crossed 1.5 million cases and 30,000 people lost their lives till date from the pandemic’s outbreak in Q1 of 2020.
Then, Covid-19 happened. An unprecedented era where infections of a singular disease had crossed 1.5 million cases and 30,000 people lost their lives till date from the pandemic’s outbreak in Q1 of 2020. The venture in to QCommerce sought a lot of investment, in which Airlift became a househould name. However, there were many issues that ultimately led to its downfall
- Lack of QC and QA (items not being properly tracked or barcoded through an inventory management system)
- Too much money burned through advertisement without justification of sales
- Heavy Capex into dark stores
- Inaccurate Unit Economics
Similarly, such ventures in the US like GoPuff are finding it hard to raise funds with devaluation looming large.
Usman Gul had a great vision for Airlift and his days are definitely not behind him. Airlift, as many have rightly said, became a posterchild for the Pakistani startup ecosystem.
I think it’s high time everyone got together, be it industry professionals, industrialists, techies, entrepreneurs, and wapistanis, and create solutions viable for the imminent future of Pakistan. Now, that’s an ecosystem that can last.
BILAL MUMTAZ
LAHORE
