ShopUp

ShopUp is a Dhaka-headquartered business-to-business commerce platform serving micro, small and medium retailers in Bangladesh. It connects mills, manufacturers, producers and distributors to a network of small neighbourhood grocery and retail shops, addressing the sourcing, delivery and financing constraints that these shops face in a retail market where roughly 98 percent of consumption passes through about 4.5 million small stores.

The company operates through three principal products: Mokam, a wholesale marketplace app offering a broad product catalogue with 24-hour doorstep delivery; REDX, an end-to-end third-party logistics and last-mile delivery network; and Baki, a buy-now-pay-later credit product for retailers embedded in the Mokam app. ShopUp also built credit-scoring tools and worked with microcredit institutions, including a partnership with BRAC, to extend financing to small merchants.

Since April 2025 ShopUp has operated within SILQ Group, formed by the merger of ShopUp with Sary, a Gulf-region B2B marketplace, creating a platform spanning the Gulf and emerging Asia. Afeef Zaman, ShopUp's co-founder, serves as Group CEO of SILQ, while Ataur Rahim Chowdhury is Co-founder and CEO of ShopUp Bangladesh.

Founding story

The concept originated in 2016 when co-founder Afeef Zaman, visiting his grandparents in Bauphal, Patuakhali — the site of Bangladesh's largest pottery cluster — observed how small producers struggled to scale against large conglomerates with stronger distribution. Identifying sourcing, logistics and financing as the core obstacles for small businesses, he built ShopUp to address them. Zaman had previously founded a technology company at age 20, leading a team of 150 and bootstrapping it to $3 million in revenue. The company was formally founded in 2017 in Dhaka by Zaman (CEO) and Ataur Rahim Chowdhury (CPO), with Siffat Sarwar as co-founder and COO; Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan became co-founders through the acquisition of India's Voonik.

Business model

ShopUp operates a full-stack B2B commerce model: it aggregates demand from small neighbourhood retailers, sources goods directly from manufacturers, producers and distributors at negotiated pricing, fulfils orders through its own logistics network, and layers embedded financial products such as buy-now-pay-later credit on top of the transaction relationship. Its logistics arm REDX is also sold as a standalone third-party logistics service to small online sellers.

Revenue is generated from wholesale product sales to retailers via the Mokam marketplace, third-party logistics and last-mile delivery services through REDX, and embedded financial products including the Baki buy-now-pay-later offering for small retailers.

Traction

By 2021 the company reported more than 13x revenue growth and 11x growth in shipments over the preceding 12 months, with operations in all 64 districts, 400 permanent employees and 5,000 delivery personnel. REDX delivered more than 50 percent of all third-party-logistics e-commerce shipments in Bangladesh and, by early 2022, operated over 250 delivery points across 493 sub-districts. The company has cited more than 655,000 merchants on its platform and states that 31 million people in Bangladesh access food and essentials through its network of shops.

Latest developments

On 9 April 2025 ShopUp announced a merger with Sary, a Gulf-region B2B marketplace and services platform, forming SILQ Group, a cross-regional B2B commerce platform targeting the Gulf and emerging Asia. The transaction was backed by a $110 million funding round led by Sanabil Investments, a wholly owned company of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, and Valar Ventures — described as Sanabil's first investment in South Asia. Afeef Zaman became Group CEO of SILQ, with Ataur Rahim Chowdhury leading ShopUp in Bangladesh.