Appetito, based in Cairo, is acquiring Tunisia’s Lamma in order to grow operations in Morocco, Tunisia, and West Africa and become Africa’s top e-Grocery and Q-commerce operator.

Appetito delivers thousands of groceries and household products to clients from dark stores in three Egyptian cities using its mobile app. Lamma has also established a similar Q-Commerce firm in Tunisia and Morocco. It was co-founded in 2021 by serial entrepreneur and former Careem GM Yassir El Ismaili El Idrissi (a ride-hailing company). Yassir will be the Chief Expansion & Growth Officer at Appetito.

The founders of both firms have now agreed to become a single entity known as “Appetito.” This transaction is expected to close by the end of the third quarter of 2022.

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“I’m delighted to welcome unparalleled talent and like-minded entrepreneurs to our family. We believe it’s the best time to expand in Africa to solve the huge inefficiencies in the retail supply chain.” said Appetito Chief Executive Officer Shehab Mokhtar “Having Lamma on board will put us on track to become the largest q-commerce player in the continent, transforming the life of millions of people and creating thousands of direct & indirect jobs”, Shehab added.

“Lamma & Appetito are a perfect match. We share a common vision, business & operating models. But above all, we share similar values. As entrepreneurs, joining forces to create the regional champion makes perfect sense. From our 3 countries, we now have a fantastic platform to expand into new African markets”, commented Yassir El Ismaili El Idrissi.

“This acquisition will allow significant synergies between the 2 companies, starting with a strong and common tech platform. Both companies have been extremely efficient with our capital deployment, having covered 3 markets, all while achieving double-digit margins, and keeping cash burn under control” said Appetito Chief Operating Officer Ahmed Eldemerdash.

Read also Tunisian Delivery Startup Lamma Is Now Live In Morocco

The move has piqued the interest of early investors in both companies. “The Middle East and Africa are fragmented marketplaces in which few businesses have established regional players. We are honored to be a part of this adventure!” Grégoire de Padirac, Principal of Orange Ventures and a Lamma investor, stated.

Appetito is a rapidly developing q-commerce firm with ambitions to become the top q-commerce player in frontier and emerging regions.

Appetito Lamma Appetito Lamma

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

Appetito, a Cairo-based Dark Store Grocery Delivery startup, has raised $2 million in its latest fundraising round. Jedar Capital, a US-based early-stage VC focused on MENA and Emerging Asia, led the Pre-Series A round, with participation from Golden Palm Investments, DFS Lab, and a group of prominent angel investors and family offices, some of whom had previously invested in similar grocery startups such as Jiffy in the United Kingdom and Chaldal in Bangladesh. The startup had previously received about $500k in a seed round in April.

“The grocery retail market size in Egypt is valued at $60 Billion. The fact that 2% of it is currently online, creates a massive opportunity for growth betting on the younger generations as 50% of the Egyptian population are below the age of 25 years,” Founder and CEO Shehab Mokhtar said. 

Why The Investors Invested

“I am happy Jedar Capital is leading the current round after participating in Appetito’s previous Seed round. In the past 12 months, I was amazed by how Shehab managed to build an A-plus team and created a great company culture that pushed Appetito the past 12 months to grow significantly more than 10X in terms of number of orders and revenue. Quick commerce/fast grocery delivery business model has been gaining grounds regionally and globally and I look forward for Appetito’s next phase as they expand to cover more areas in Egypt and start planning for regional growth.” — Sherif Nessim, General Partner at Jedar Capital

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“As the global trend toward contactless, instant, and personalized consumer goods continues to accelerate, Appetito is providing the Egyptian market with a differentiated grocery e-commerce service. Shehab and team are the first digital grocery service to utilize the “dark” store model for hyper-local delivery directly to consumer doorsteps. Golden Palm is thrilled to support Appetito’s innovative approach to owning the supply chain and guaranteeing item availability for consumers.” — AJ Okereke, Partner at Golden Palm

A Look At What The Startup Does

Appetito, which launched in March 2020, uses a dark store model, in which goods are purchased from suppliers, processed in mini fulfillment centers, and then shipped to consumers. The company began with a wide variety of private label goods, delivering to all areas of Cairo, Giza, and Alexandria the next day and on time.

The company recently extended its product range to include over 1000 SKUs from well-known market brands and joined the hyper convenience race by offering customers delivery in under 60 minutes in select areas.

In Cairo, the company now has seven dark stores and wants to expand to 150 by 2024.

grocery delivery appetito grocery delivery appetito

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning write

Again, angel investors continue to descend upon Egyptian startups, no matter their sector. Joining the continuing league of startups to be funded by angels in recent time is Appetito, a Cairo-based grocery startup which has secured a $450K Seed funding round from a group of Saudi Arabian angel investors. 

“We’re proud of what we have achieved in just a few months from our launch. We’re privileged to have such prominent investors backing us. With their support and the team we’re building, I’m confident we will be in a leading position in the global race of grocery delivery,” said Appetito Founder and CEO Shehab Mokhtar.

Here Is What You Need To Know

• A group of angel investors in this round was led by Ahmed Al Alola, an early-stage investor who was one of the early backers of Nana and Sary, alongside Afropreneurs Fund, an African early-stage technology fund that has previously backed top startups such as Andela, Flutterwave and Trella.

• Jedar Capital, an emerging VC focused on early-stage startups in the Middle East, Africa, and Emerging Asia, also participated in the round.

Why The Investors Invested

“Observing the radical change in consumer’s behaviour post-COVID-19, the grocery delivery market is expanding rapidly in the region. I believe Appetito — with its stellar team — is well positioned to lead that segment and capture the market by delivering superior experience compared to what is currently available in most of the African space,” Ahmed Al Alola said. 

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“ Our investment into Appetito’s seed round follows on our proven thesis of investing in strong founders with unique local insights and a bias towards execution. We are excited by what Shehab and his team have achieved so far, and we are very bullish on the Egyptian early-stage ecosystem,” Idris Bello, Managing Partner, Afropreneurs Fund said. 

“We are excited to be part of Appetito’s journey in Egypt and MENA region. We have been watching Appetito’s execution and the team’s growth focused approach with very limited resources early on, this was a clear message to us on how resilient and focused they are. Appetito is best suited for growth with the digital transformation happening in Egypt where online commerce growth is skyrocketing and saw a huge leap with covid, more and more customers now are adopting online grocery shopping as their standard now. We believe that Appetito’s model focusing on dark stores rather than aggregating from grocery retail stores will add value and differentiation in the market and play a pivotal role in terms of operational efficiency and gross margin contribution. We look forward to supporting them with their expansion and growth plans in Egypt and beyond,” Sherif Nessim, Founder and Managing Director of Jedar Capital said. 

A Look At What The Startup Does

Appetito, which launched in March 2020, uses a dark store model, in which goods are purchased from suppliers, processed in mini fulfillment centers, and then shipped to consumers. The company began with a wide variety of private label goods, delivering to all areas of Cairo, Giza, and Alexandria the next day and on time.

Read also:Appzone to Expand Banking Technology Across Africa With New Funding

The company recently extended its product range to include over 1000 SKUs from well-known market brands and joined the hyper convenience race by offering customers delivery in under 60 minutes in select areas.

Apetito grocery Apetito grocery

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer