Crowdshipping startup Paquik raises USD 85,000 in seed funding to scale its peer to peer delivery platform, expand service offerings, and deepen regional logistics innovation.
UAE based crowdshipping company Paquik has closed a fully subscribed pre seed round of USD 85,000, backed by angel investors, marking an early milestone for the startup as it seeks to expand its peer to peer cross border parcel delivery marketplace across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Founded by entrepreneur George Antakis, the company’s inaugural funding round was completed in November 2025 and coincides with the official launch of its asset light logistics platform.
Paquik’s marketplace connects individuals sending items internationally with travelers who have available luggage space on their journeys, leveraging trust infrastructure such as identity verification (KYC), escrow payments, delivery confirmation, and user ratings to facilitate secure exchanges between senders and travelers. The company’s platform, which does not own physical assets like fleets, warehouses, or aircraft, positions itself as a complementary layer to traditional freight forwarding and logistics providers by monetizing unused traveler capacity and routing it into parcel transport flows.
The startup initially launched operations on the UAE - Egypt corridor, a route characterised by high passenger volumes and robust cross border parcel traffic driven by expatriate and family networks, where it has attracted more than 17,000 registered users and generated in excess of USD 10,000 in revenue within its first months. The proceeds from the pre seed round have been deployed toward enhancing the mobile application, expanding verification systems, and scaling engineering, customer support, and marketing teams, alongside participation in industry exhibitions and targeted awareness campaigns.
In the broader context of peer to peer and crowdshipping logistics models, Paquik’s entry into the MENA region mirrors a wider global trend of digital platforms attempting to decentralise parcel movement. Market trackers list dozens of P2P international shipping startups, including established names such as Grabr, Airfrov, and Hitchhiker, that operate similar crowd oriented delivery networks and have collectively attracted funding at larger scales with some securing multi million dollar rounds and extended market reach. Historically, crowdshipping models first emerged in the early 2000s, evolving through ventures like Deliv Inc., a US based same day crowd delivery service that later became part of Target’s logistics strategy, and Roadie, which grew to support major retail partners before integration into UPS’s logistics ecosystem.
Research on crowdshipping highlights the model’s potential benefits including reduced delivery costs, environmental gains through utilisation of non dedicated travel routes, and improved flexibility compared with traditional logistics but also notes the operational and regulatory challenges inherent in coordinating informal networks at scale. For early stage ventures like Paquik, scaling beyond niche corridors and managing cross‑border compliance remain core execution tasks as demand for alternative logistics solutions grows alongside international travel and e‑commerce.
Looking ahead, Paquik aims to extend its service footprint into additional GCC travel corridors throughout 2026, roll out new product features, and further build out its operations as it endeavours to carve a role for crowd‑enabled logistics in the region’s broader supply chain ecosystem.
