Appetito, an Egyptian startup, made an announcement in June of last year that it had acquired Lamma, a young Tunisian firm that was founded by Yassir El Ismaili. The two firms engage in the same line of business, which is the delivery of groceries and other household goods. Shehab Mokhtar, the founder of Appetito, provides further details on the work that his firm is undertaking.
On June 1st, you made the announcement that you had acquired Lamma. What makes this particular startup unique, and why Tunisia?
It all started when we met the Lamma team and learned that we have the same objective, which is to deliver to clients in record speed while also providing a high level of service. From there, everything else fell into place.
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The fact that Lamma’s management team had substantial prior experience running their own businesses was another one of the company’s many strengths. What this group was able to do in such a short amount of time impressed us as well, especially considering that we, too, have the objective of significantly expanding our market.
After speaking with this team, we came to the conclusion that Tunisia had the potential to be an integral part of our growth into markets in West Africa. In addition, we have already begun our operations in Morocco by opening our first shop in the capital city of Rabat.
At first look, the notion of placing an order for goods over the internet does not appear to be very congruent with the tradition of the area. How did you come up with this concept?
After working for a number of years in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) business, where I witnessed major inefficiencies, I decided to build my own firm. Grocery stores play a significant role in the provision of mass distribution services throughout a number of nations in the area, including Egypt.
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These retail establishments do not possess the financial resources necessary to be able to successfully negotiate competitive pricing with their many suppliers. In addition, these stores are supplied at the very last link in a very lengthy chain of middlemen, which precludes them from having pricing that are in customers’ best interests. As a direct consequence of this, the customer will not receive a discount on the products he purchases.
As a result, we have developed a system that enables us to purchase items at favourable pricing straight from the manufacturers of such goods.
At Appetito, we also think that we have a purpose to give consumers with an exceptional experience as a client, and we strive to accomplish this goal every day. After the disruption that the world has suffered as a result of the war in Ukraine, this is of very vital importance. In order to improve the overall quality of life for our customers, I feel that it is our responsibility to make it possible for them to get the essentials they require.
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I believe that doing so is part of our social responsibility.
Appetito has just received funding from Purity. Where are these dollars going to be put to use?
Purity is one of those investors that has supported Appetito from the very beginning because they believe in the company’s vision. Following the success of our growth into Tunisia and Morocco, they made the decision to increase their stake in the firm.
Because we still have a large margin for development in Egypt and Tunisia, where we currently only have two stores, the primary purpose of the new fundraising that we have carried out will be to accelerate the development of our markets. This is because we have only two stores in each of those countries.
As a side note, we are working toward increasing the scope of our presence throughout the country.
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It should come as no surprise that our Moroccan subsidiary would profit from this capital raising effort given that Rabat, the country’s capital, is where we have just opened our first location. We want to begin operations in a number of additional places fairly shortly.
Appetito Founder Appetito Founder
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexpert