- Zaraye committed to become top B2B platform for raw materials sourcing
Interview with Mr Ahsan Ali Khan — Co-founder and CEO, Zaraye
Profile
Ahsan Ali Khan is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Zaraye, a B2B raw materials marketplace helping manufacturers with their procurement. Ahsan, along with his co-founder, founded Zaraye in late 2021. Prior to founding Zaraye, Ahsan spent his career with notable tech startups in Pakistan.
He has experience across e-commerce marketplaces, health tech, ride-hailing, and mass transit while working with organizations like Dawaai, Careem, Daraz and Swvl.
In his last stint, before joining Zaraye, Ahsan helped Swvl launch Karachi as their 6th market and then moved on to lead the inter-city travel category across Pakistan.
Ahsan has an education background in business administration and an under-graduate from IBA Karachi.
PAGE: Please tell us a little about yourself and what inspired you to become an entrepreneur?
Ahsan Ali Khan:Â I graduated from IBA in 2016 and started my career with notable tech startups here. I worked with multiple e-commerce marketplaces in health tech, ride-hailing, and mass transit while working with organizations like Dawaai, Careem, Daraz, and Swvl. My last stint was at Swvl where I launched their 6th market and moved on to lead the inter-city travel category across Pakistan.
There are two major things that pushed me to become an entrepreneur:
- Despite having so much potential and 1000s of amazing family businesses for decades, why is Pakistan unable to create category defining global businesses. Zaraye is an effort to help our local businesses be that.
- For a place riddled with so many problems, the number of people solving structural problems with a long-term lens are clearly far less than what we need.
The vision is to solve these problems and be an organization that can inspire people within and outside to be impactful problem solvers.
PAGE: How did the idea of Zaraye come about?Â
Ahsan Ali Khan:Â Zaraye was created with the intention of establishing an organization that is truly committed to solving problems and positively impacting people’s lives. My co-founder Taha Teli and I identified a significant gap in the market for the comprehensive and thoughtful distribution of raw materials across various categories. We observed that business owners have bigger concerns and need to focus more on manufacturing and sales, rather than worrying about sourcing their raw materials, which can be a traditional and unruly marketplace. For instance, an exporter of textiles would benefit from concentrating on operations and sales rather than worrying about whether their raw materials have arrived on time.
Additionally, we discovered that managing working capital cycles is a difficult task for businesses, given that 65-70% of their expenses go towards raw materials. These businesses face price discovery challenges, especially when dealing with multiple intermediaries and where credit is a massive probelm. Unfortunately, businesses primarily work with only four or five intermediaries willing to offer them credit, which limits their ability to explore more options and ends up causing them to pay exorbitant premiums with no guarantee that they are getting the best rates on the market.
Therefore, Zaraye was founded with the aim of addressing these gaps and filling the void in the market. By focusing on innovation and excellence, we strive to be a leading force in creating meaningful change and adding exponential value to the lives of business owners while solving their current problems. Our platform was created to assist businesses in procuring raw materials at the best prices and quality while providing financing options that allow them to scale quickly.
PAGE: What specific types of raw materials does your platform offer to manufacturers?
Ahsan Ali Khan:Â Zaraye is presently operating in three industries: polymer, construction and textile. Within the textile industry, we source yarn, greige fabric and finished products such as garments, apparel, home and institutional textiles. In terms of polymers, our focus is on sourcing plastic resin and plastic recycling. Finally, in the construction industry, we source cement and steel bars and a range of smaller input materials primarily focused on gray structures.
PAGE: What geographic areas does your platform cover?
Ahsan Ali Khan:Â Zaraye’s operations are based in Karachi, with regional offices located in Faisalabad and Gujranwala. We cater across several regions, including Sindh, Punjab and specific areas of KPK. Our textile category collaborates with a range of international buyers and suppliers from China, Indonesia, Poland, the UK and other countries.
PAGE: What is your vision for the future of your platform and how do you plan to achieve it?
Ahsan Ali Khan:Â Zaraye’s vision is to become the leading B2B platform for raw materials sourcing, providing businesses with comprehensive solutions for their procurement needs. Our goal is to create a one-stop shop that offers not only supply but also financing options for businesses to scale quickly.
To achieve this vision, we plan to leverage technology and innovation to streamline the raw materials sourcing process. Our platform provides transparency and efficiency, allowing businesses to access a wide range of options and choose the best one that fits their needs. We are continuously investing in our platform to ensure that it remains up-to-date with the latest technology and can provide the best user experience for our clients.
We also aim to create a seamless and hassle-free experience for our customers. We have a team of experienced professionals who work closely with our clients to ensure that their needs are met and their expectations are exceeded. We believe in building strong relationships with our clients and providing them with personalized solutions to help their businesses grow.
Furthermore, we plan to expand our operations and reach more businesses in different regions. We are constantly exploring new markets and developing new partnerships with suppliers and buyers to provide our clients with access to the best raw materials at competitive prices.
In summary, our vision is ‘to be the go-to platform’ for businesses looking to source raw materials. We plan to achieve this by leveraging technology, providing personalized solutions and expanding our operations to reach more businesses in different regions.
PAGE: What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs who are just starting out?
Ahsan Ali Khan:Â This is a super tough one to answer. Being an entrepreneur means you have to operate in an ever-evolving, highly dynamic market most of the times, so one thing could be a brilliant or terrible idea, depending on a large number of factors. Two things, however, that would always help would be to understand what your customers would want from you and stay persistent in providing that for them till you hit the right sweet spot.