PakWheels grew from a car forum into a marketplace that has only recently found its margin

In the first half of 2025, PakWheels earned A$0.44 million before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. That is roughly the A$0.4 million it reported for the whole of 2024. The figures come from Frontier Digital Ventures (FDV), the Malaysian classifieds investor listed in Australia, which holds 36.84 percent of PakWheels through a Singapore holding company and accounts for it as an associate.

PakWheels is Pakistan's best known car portal. Its homepage invites visitors to search over 110,000 used cars, and around the listings it sells vehicle inspection reports, a service to sell a car on the owner's behalf, auction sheet verification, an auto parts store, insurance quotes and loan comparison, and an annual Auto Show. In the six months to June 2025 it reported revenue of A$1.5 million, up 54 percent on the same period a year before, and an EBITDA margin of 30 percent, up from 19 percent. Because FDV counts PakWheels as an associate, its sales are not added to FDV's consolidated revenue.

A forum before a business

Hanif Bhatti started PakWheels after returning to Pakistan following more than two decades abroad. TechJuice's 2015 profile says he and a developer, Jagdesh Pahuja, began in the basement of his home, that the domain was their only cost and that they had no business model.

“I wanted to get in touch with my friends and people who were passionate about cars.”

Growth came from users asking questions and telling friends. Revenue began as advertising once traffic rose, and the founders put it back into the forums. Later models added loyalty cards, featured ads, packages for dealerships and auto shows.

Spare cash from Lahore

The turn came when Raza Saeed, who ran the Lahore software services company Confiz, went looking for somewhere to put spare money. A mutual friend pointed him to PakWheels.

“We had some spare cash that year and I was looking to invest in something.”

Saeed and a partner bought a major share, the office moved from Karachi to Lahore and Saeed took the lead. He remains chief executive.

The 2014 round and the big promise

In October 2014 FDV put US$3.5 million into the company, which was then drawing about 20 million page views a month. By 2015 the team had grown from two people to more than 60. Saeed said he wanted PakWheels to become a billion dollar Pakistani company by the end of the decade.

FDV had earlier invested in the property portal Zameen.com, and the 2014 announcement pitched PakWheels as a market leader that had kept growing against classifieds sites backed by Naspers and Schibsted. Its advantages, as described then, were a loyal brand following, its management team and marketing that included dealerships on the ground. The money was to be spent on strengthening that lead, improving existing services and building new ones.

What the accounts show

For 2022, Data Darbar, a Pakistani research newsletter, calculated revenue of Rs494 million, up 46 percent from Rs338 million, and EBITDA down 63 percent to Rs17 million. The margin fell to 3.4 percent from 13.5 percent in 2021, which was the first year with positive EBITDA. In dollars the revenue rise was 16 percent, to US$2.4 million, and Data Darbar noted that revenue had grown by only about US$1 million since 2017.

FDV's 2024 report calls what followed a recovery. PakWheels reported record revenue of A$2.3 million, up 51 percent, and EBITDA of A$0.4 million, up 135 percent, and FDV credited the recovery of the auto sector in Pakistan. Those growth rates imply about A$1.5 million of revenue and about A$0.17 million of EBITDA in 2023. That is our arithmetic from the stated rates. The first half of 2025 then added a margin of 30 percent.

FDV's other Pakistani associate, the property portal Zameen, shows how much the wider economy mattered. In 2024 FDV said the property sector remained subdued while PakWheels benefited from the auto recovery. In the first half of 2025 Zameen reported revenue of A$5.9 million and EBITDA of A$1.4 million, a margin of 24 percent up from 9 percent, which FDV attributed to significantly lower inflation and interest rates. Together the two associates reported revenue of A$7.4 million, up 22 percent, and EBITDA of A$1.9 million, up 191 percent. PakWheels therefore supplied about a fifth of the pair's revenue and about a quarter of its EBITDA in that half.

The business still moves with car sales rather than ahead of them. Two rivals, CarFirst and VavaCars, have left the Pakistani market, which leaves OLX, mainly a general classifieds site, as the main competitor. FDV does not split PakWheels revenue between listings, dealer packages, services and events, so it is not possible to say which line earns the margin.

A loan note and an open question

FDV also lent PakWheels money. Its accounts show convertible loan notes issued by the Singapore holding company, Pakwheels Pte Ltd, with US$600,000 of consideration and 10 percent annual interest. The balance stood at US$925,123 at the end of 2023, US$985,123 a year later and US$1,015,123 on 30 June 2025. The notes convert into shares automatically if PakWheels raises new equity above a minimum amount stipulated in the agreement. If it does not, a majority of noteholders can convert at fair value. They mature on 3 October 2026.

The balance rose by US$60,000 in 2024, which is 10 percent of the US$600,000 principal, and by US$30,000 in the first half of 2025, the same rate. That is our arithmetic. FDV's filings that we reviewed do not say what happened at maturity on 3 October, whether new equity was raised, or how many shares the notes became.

A portal with high fixed costs gains margin when each extra rupee of sales costs little to serve, which is why a recovering car market lifts EBITDA faster than revenue, as it did in 2024 when revenue rose 51 percent and EBITDA 135 percent. The same effect works in reverse when sales fall. A 30 percent margin on A$1.5 million is EBITDA of A$0.44 million for six months, so the margin is sensitive to small swings in revenue.

The next facts to look for are PakWheels' revenue for the second half of 2025 and whether the loan notes, which matured on 3 October 2026, converted into shares.