ALGIERS, Algeria, November 7, 2022 – Yassir, an online marketplace offering on-demand services such as transportation, food and grocery delivery, as well as financial services, announced today that it has raised $150 million in funding B series from leading global investors. The investment was led by BOND, one of Silicon Valley's largest venture capital firms, with participation from Y Combinator, the world's largest startup accelerator, DN Capital, Dorsal Capital, Quiet Capital and Stanford Alumni Ventures, as well as other existing and strategic investors.
After raising $193.25 million in the five years since the company launched, it is now the highest valued startup in North Africa and one of the highest valued companies in Africa and the Middle East. With this latest fundraiser, Yassir plans to expand its reach in the region.
"Yassir means 'easy' in Arabic, and our mission as a company is to make people's lives easier," said Noureddine Tayebi, founder and CEO of Yassir. “In the markets where we operate, we are already having a huge impact on the way people go about their daily lives. We look forward to expanding our presence into other geographies to become the first SuperApp to gain mass adoption."
Founded in 2017, the company is now present in six countries and 45 cities, where it is used by more than 8 million users. Popular in the Maghreb region (Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia) and parts of French-speaking Africa, Yassir provides three basic services: transportation, meal and grocery delivery, and financial services. An all-in-one ecosystem, Yassir offers its customers a single solution to manage all their daily activities, from commuting to work to ordering groceries and meals. These services generate revenue for more than 100,000 partners, which include drivers, couriers, merchants, wholesalers, among other merchants and sharing economy workers.
In addition to providing a core suite of services, Yassir offers financial services aimed at serving the entire ecosystem, touching every component of the marketplace. A 2018 McKinsey & Company report on financial services growth and innovation in Africa found that more than half (57%) of Africa's population does not have any form of bank account. Among African banking customers, 40% prefer digital channels for transactions. By offering African consumers a mobile payment solution, as part of a more comprehensive suite of services, Yassir addresses an important market need, where 50% of the population already has access to mobile internet.
"We believe that technology will fundamentally reshape consumers' relationship with everyday needs - transportation, food, financial services - not just in developed countries, but in every corner of the world." said Daegwon Chae, General Partner of BOND. “This investment is an extension of that belief in an underserved but dynamic and rapidly growing region. Emerging from North Africa, the app has already become indispensable to users for critical aspects of their lives."
Noureddine, a Stanford Ph.D. native of Algiers with more than 10 years of business and entrepreneurship experience in Silicon Valley, back in his native region, also commented on the company's mission.
“Yassir is not just a business for me. It was founded with a fourfold mission. First, we want to create a 100% local tech startup success model that will be emulated by others and even more so by the members of the Yassir team. Secondly, we want to empower local talent and, more specifically, technical talent who often leave the region, mainly to Europe, to pursue studies or find employment. In fact, we hire engineers in every country where we operate to extend this mission. Second, we want to make people's lives easy. In fact, Yassir means easy in Arabic! Finally, we want to instill social values through our products such as trust and mutual aid."
To learn more about Yassir, visit: https://yassir.com/.
About Yassir
Founded in 2017, Yassir is an online marketplace that offers its users a suite of services, including transportation, food and grocery delivery, and payment services. The company operates in six countries and 45 cities around the world, where it serves more than 8 million customers and more than 100,000 partners.
BACK TO HOME PAGE
