👥 The people behind Lugbook
Meet the team
Lugbook was built by two people who lived the problem — carrying goods across borders for family and friends, with no proper platform to do it safely or fairly.
How Lugbook started
The idea came from a simple, repeated frustration: if you wanted authentic goods from another country — real Pakistani mangoes, proper lawn fabric, hand-made crafts — the only realistic option was to ask someone you knew who happened to be travelling. There was no platform for it. No way to find a carrier. No trust layer. Just WhatsApp messages and hoping for the best.
Abir and Mark built Lugbook to fix that. A marketplace where verified travellers can monetise their spare luggage capacity, and buyers can access authentic goods from anywhere — without paying extortionate shipping fees. Zero platform fees. Real people. Real trips.
Founders
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Abir Ahmed
Co-founder & CEO
Abir grew up between Lahore and Manchester, spending years navigating the frustration of trying to get authentic goods from home — the mangoes, the lawn suits, the mithai — only to find shipping costs higher than the items themselves. That friction became the spark for Lugbook. Abir leads product vision, community growth, and operations.
- ✓Born in Lahore, raised in Manchester
- ✓Background in logistics and community marketplaces
- ✓Passionate about connecting the diaspora with home
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Umar Akhtar
Co-founder & CTO
Umar has spent over a decade building consumer platforms that bring people together across borders. When Abir brought him the idea, he immediately recognised the problem — he'd seen friends carry goods informally for years with no infrastructure around it. Umar leads engineering, trust and safety systems, and platform architecture.
- ✓Full-stack engineer with a background in marketplace platforms
- ✓Previously built peer-to-peer logistics tools in fintech
- ✓Focused on keeping Lugbook fast, safe, and fee-free
What we believe
The principles that guide every decision we make.
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Borders are obstacles, not barriers
People should be able to access goods from anywhere in the world. Geography is not a reason to pay five times the retail price.
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Trust through verification
Every carrier is identity-verified. Every trip is confirmed. We do not publish listings until we know the person is real and the journey is real.
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No fees, ever
Lugbook charges nothing for standard use. No listing fees, no transaction fees. We believe the platform should serve people — not extract from them.
Get in touch
We read every message. Whether you have a question, a partnership idea, or just want to tell us how we can improve — reach out.
team@lugbook.com