Appetito, an Egyptian platform that delivers groceries and household products to customers from 11 dark stores across three cities in the North African country, is set to acquire Lamma, an identical startup with operations in Tunisia and Morocco.
Lamma was founded by CEO Yassir El Ismaili El Idrissi, ex-GM at Careem, Hamza Guesmi and Koussi Aymen — and is backed by Orange Ventures.It first launched in Tunisia as a carpooling service then turned in to a quick commerce platform delivering groceries, personal care and fashion items to users in Tunisia and Morocco in less than 45 minutes.
While commenting on how Appetito financed the acquisition, Mokhtar said, “We’ve been very cost-efficient with solid unit economics from day one. The fact that we were able to do so much with so little is great evidence, having raised just $2.5 million. Moreover, we’ll be closing an eight-figure round soon to foster our expansion even further.”
Although details about the the deal have not been made public, but according Techcruch the deal ranges between $10 million to $15 million.
As part of the acquistion,the Lamma team, its three dark stores and a distribution centre will be integrated into Appetito as both teams and Lammas El Idrissi will join Appetito as its chief expansion and growth officer.
Appetito said the deal makes it the largest q-commerce player in Africa. Its claim is based on the number of markets it currently operates in: Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. “No other q-commerce player in Africa operates in such big markets,” Mokhtar told TechCrunch
Africa’s fragmented retail market creates a solid business case for q-commerce models like Appetito, said the CEO. “We are not only about delivering convenience, but we’re also about tackling huge inefficiencies in the supply chain and providing real value for our customers as well as our suppliers,” he added.