Wahaj Ahmed
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| Wahaj Ahmed | |
|---|---|
| Native name | وہاج احمد |
| Born | |
| 🏳️ Nationality | Pakistani |
| 🏫 Education | Lahore University of Management Sciences (BSc. Accounting and Finance) |
| 💼 Occupation | Entrepreneur |
| 🏢 Organization | Retailo |
| Title |
|
Wahaj Ahmed[1] is a Pakistani growth hacker, marketing manager, ex-associate at McKinsey, and an entrepreneur. He is one of the co-founders of the app-based B2B startup Retailo, which he launched with his fellow Careem alums, Muhammad Talha Ansari and Muhammad Nowkhaiz.[2]
Early life and education[edit]
After completing his Cambridge O-Levels and A-Levels, he was admitted into LUMS in 2010, where pursued a bi-major in Accounting as well as Finance with a minor in Computer Science.[3] There, he met Muhammad Nowkhaiz, one of his fellow co-founders at Retailo in 2013.[4]
Corporate experience[edit]
After graduating, Wahaj initially ventured into content writing where he learnt about money markets, capital markets, and how companies are valued.[4] He then joined a Rocket Internet ride-sharing startup called TRIBDA, but the company shut down its worldwide operations only six months after it first launched. Wahaj then moved onto Daraz, another booming Rocket Internet startup in November 2014 as an online marketing manager. In his almost two years at there, he was responsible for overseeing GDN and SME-based campaigns in all Jumia (Asian) countries.
Careem Pakistan[edit]
Wahaj moved on to Careem as a marketing manager in May 2016.[5] Initially, his job there was to bring more customers onto the platform, for which he worked on captain acquisition and started working on developing the first captain funnels at Careem. As a result, Careem employed the SMS and WhatsApp-based acquisition engines to hire captains and reduced the average onboarding time from five days to two days. Eventually, his job title at Careem was changed to that of a “Growth Hacker”. Wahaj describes his role at Careem as that of a “fixer” as he “oscillated” from the cities of Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi handling different crises as they came.[4]
At the age of 25, Wahaj was promoted to the position of General Manager at Careem - their youngest GM in the region.[6][7] He managed growth for the entire city of Karachi with annual revenue of $100m, and was able to increase the city revenues and transactions by 150% in five months and while managing a team of over 80 people. Soon afterwards, he received his fellowship acceptance at McKinsey.[3]
McKinsey[edit]
He opted for a one-year deferment of his fellowship at McKinsey in order to serve as Careem GM. He joined the former in July 2017,[8] and aimed to become a partner at the company. He studied the opportunities for innovation and growth in the MENAP region there, and decided to work to transform the way retailers order commodities for their shops after the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
Launching Retailo[edit]
In July 2020, he launched Retailo with his fellow Careem alums, Talha Ansari and Muhammad Nowkhaiz. The initial MVP was the beta version of an app that cost Rs. 30,000 (around US$185). He was given the idea to launch this app-based way of ordering grocery items for small retail outlets in Saudi Arabia instead of Pakistan as the former was more technologically adept and could better appreciate the product. However, he launched Retailo in Pakistan as well.
In October 2020, the firm received $2.3 million in a pre-seed fundraising round.[8] Retailo's overall investment has now hit $9 million, just nine months after it began operations. It is supported by Shorooq Partners, which spearheaded both rounds of funding, as well as Abercross Holdings in the United Kingdom, AgFunder in Silicon Valley, and Arzan Venture Capital[9] in the Middle East.[8]
References[edit]
- ↑ https://res.cloudinary.com/startup-grind/image/upload/c_fill,dpr_2.0,f_auto,g_center,h_250,q_auto:good,w_250/v1/gcs/platform-data-startupgrind/events/Wahaj.jpg
- ↑ Chaudhary, Zeenat (2021-11-30). "Retailo: The B2B Marketplace for SME Retailers". Aurora Magazine. Retrieved 2021-12-28.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Retailo | AgFunder". agfunder.com. Retrieved 2021-12-28.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Startup Grind w Wahaj Ahmed, Co Founder Retailo, retrieved 2021-12-28
- ↑ "Speakers". Step | Startup and Technology Events. Retrieved 2021-12-28.
- ↑ "Uber seeking investment upwards of $700m for Careem". Profit by Pakistan Today. 2021-12-07. Retrieved 2021-12-28.
- ↑ "Retailo raises USD 2.3 million pre-seed for its B2B ecommerce marketplace in Saudi & Pakistan". KrASIA. 2020-10-14. Retrieved 2021-12-30.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "MENA startup founded by ex-McKinsey consultant raises $2.3 million". www.consultancy-me.com. 2020-10-30. Retrieved 2021-12-28.
- ↑ "Retailo | Arzan Venture Capital". Retrieved 2021-12-30.
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