Yassir, an Algeria-based super app that provides on-demand food and grocery delivery services, has launched Yassir Express in South Africa, along with several dedicated dark storefronts.
Yassir, founded in 2017 by entrepreneur Noureddine Tayebi, has a presence in five North African countries, including Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and sections of French-speaking Africa.
Investors recently handed the last mile delivery platform $150 million in Series B capital to fuel its growth drive into new foreign countries, commencing with SA as the next milestone in its fast-growing network.
Read also Algerian Startup Yassir Raises $150M For Its Super App
According to the company, Yassir Express provides a one-stop shop for thousands of products, including nappies and pharmacy items, pet food, fresh fruit and vegetables, and meat, all of which are delivered to clients’ doorsteps in 30 minutes or less.
The mobile app, which is available in the iOS and Android stores, launches with numerous “dark stores” to service people in Johannesburg and Centurion’s northern districts.
Rather than depending on regular retail outlets, which frequently sell out of merchandise and experience time delays, the company has built dark stores that are not open to the public.
When an order is received, these enable Yassir workers to quickly create shopping baskets and transport them to any location within a vast radius.
According to Peerless Assigns, a dark store is a retail distribution centre or location that caters solely to online purchasing.
Read also How 3D Gamified Business Processes Will Change World
While the company’s first focus is on Gauteng, it hopes to expand its services across the province and nationally in the coming months, with places such as Cape Town and Durban on the horizon.
Yassir South Africa GM Timothy Kiluba says that Yassir’s dramatic rise in other African markets, with over eight million customers across the continent, has been driven by speed, variety, and cost.
“Yassir Express is specifically designed for convenience, with a user-friendly and intuitive app that makes grocery shopping easier than ever,” he says. “Our business model is also unique in that we rely exclusively on dark stores and last-mile delivery. This ensures our prices remain highly-competitive and, most importantly, that we can offer faster and more reliable delivery times with a target of less than 30 minutes from purchase to arrival. Our dark store model means we can avoid inflating any product costs on our platform, making shopping more affordable.”
Tayebi’s initial vision for Yassir was to create a super app that featured services for individuals in the French-speaking Maghreb region, which comprised Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, catering to consumers who had little or no access to banking services and convenient e-commerce services.
The company has already spread to 45 cities in six countries, offering a diverse range of products and services through a single smartphone interface.
Rather of being restricted to store hours, customers may place orders on Yassir Express from as early as 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., and there are no limits on the quantity of items ordered or basket sizes, according to the company. R35 is the delivery fee.
Algerian Startup Yassir Raises $150M For Its Super App
“Given the high demand for on-demand delivery within South Africa, our goal is to expand rapidly over the next 12 months as users discover the benefits of our platform,” notes Kiluba. “Our Gauteng launch is just the first step in our plans for the local market, and we look forward to making many more exciting announcements about further investments and growth into other regions soon.”
Yassir Express South Africa Yassir Express South Africa
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://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh