Yasser=- an African super app platform that offers on-demand services such as taxi booking, food and grocery delivery, and payments has raised US$150 million in Series B funding, five times the amount raised in its round with the previous price in November last year.
The investment was led by BOND, a growth-stage firm Mary Meeker spun off from Kleiner Perkins in 2018. Other investors in the growth round are DN Capital, Dorsal Capital, Quiet Capital, Stanford Alumni Ventures and Y Combinator through their continuity fund. among other strategic investors.
The African startup, first launched in Algeria, has raised $193.25 million since its inception in 2017. Although his valuation remains undisclosed, Yasser considers himself the most valuable startup in North Africa and one of the most valuable startups in Africa and the Middle East. where it plans to expand in the coming months.
When the CEO Nureddin Tayebi Yasir, the plan was to create a super app that included services that people – in the French-speaking Maghreb region of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia – had little or no access to a single platform. So far, his performance has been excellent. Not only does the company offer taxi and food delivery services (via Yassir Express) in 45 cities in six countries, but it also report also says three out of five on-demand activities in Algeria, its first market, are done through the platform.
This calculated growth brought Yassir closer to achieving its comprehensive banking and payments plan. The provision of food ordering and transport services was the starting point that allowed Yasser to gain the trust of users – which he claims is one of the reasons most Africans don’t use banks – for this endeavor, Tayebi said.
For perspective: Morocco, one of Yasser’s main markets, over 65% of the Moroccan population does not have a bank account, and according to McKinsey 2018 data report on growth and innovation in retail banking in Africa 57% of the continent’s population does not have any form of bank account. However, the report also highlights that 40% of the African banking population prefers digital channels for transactions. Thus, Yasser’s thesis is that providing consumers with a mobile banking solution as part of a broader set of services will satisfy the urgent need of the African market, where 50% of the population has access to the Internet.
“Our business model from day one has been the add-on-pay supermodel. When we first started, it was observed that most people were not banking, and the number one reason is that people do not trust the banking systems here for various reasons,” the CEO said in an interview with TechCrunch. “We thought we could provide on-demand services that address immediate needs where people spend their money. We knew that if we performed well, we could have a large user base that subconsciously trusts us, which we think is appropriate for providing payment services.”
Yassir’s financial services serve its multi-faceted marketplace ecosystem, which includes 8 million users (more than 2.5 times more than last year) and 100,000 partners made up of drivers, couriers, merchants, suppliers and wholesalers. Yassir uses this network, which also includes a B2B e-commerce retail portion that connects FMCG suppliers to merchants, for its wallet-based payment system and the use of drivers and couriers as money agents.
The company’s performance was in line with the money, not including contributions from its recently launched financial services. In an interview, Tayebi mentioned that the one-stop ecosystem app, which provides its customers with a single solution to manage their daily activities, from commuting to ordering groceries and meals, has exceeded $50 million. in GMV and $10 million in revenue since launch.
What’s next for a YC-supported platform with components from Uber, DoorDash, Udaan and PayPal? “First, we want to create a model for the success of a local tech start-up that can be emulated by others, and in particular by members of the Yasir team,” Tayebi replied. “Secondly, we want to empower local talent and, more importantly, technical talent who often leave the region, mainly to Europe, to continue their studies or find work,” added the chief executive, who, after completing his Ph.D. . at Stanford and spent 15 years in Silicon Valley working for various companies, returning to Algeria in 2016 to take part in the country’s nascent tech scene.
Thus, Tayebi, who founded Yasser with Mahdi Yettu, says the startup intends to invest heavily in its engineering and product teams, growing them at least threefold. He also emphasized that the funding will help Yassir, which has offices in Algeria, Canada, France, Morocco and Tunisia, strengthen its growth, introduce new services in existing markets and expand directly into new geographies in Africa and the Middle East. or through acquisitions.
“While we like to think of ourselves as leaders in the Maghreb region, we are only scratching the surface and there is still a lot of room for growth,” the Silicon Valley Algerian entrepreneur said, noting that Yasser is unfazed by Uber and Bolt duopoly in the taxi category in some of the markets it plans to enter. His confidence stems from Yassir’s dominance in core markets, where Uber subsidiary Careem is struggling.
Yassir is one of five Africa-focused startups that closed the mega-round this year—that is, investment rounds worth more than $100 million. Most Valuable North African Startup Joins Flutterwave, Vasoko, insidedeepas well as Sun King on the shortlist, which as of last year, ten startups included. This reduced number is a prime example of how quickly markets are changing and reflects the current global macroeconomic challenges startups are facing. fire employees, slash estimatesor go broke. But while startups have typically faced stricter fundraising terms this year, Taiebi says that didn’t happen in Yasser’s case.
“In the first few years, it was difficult for us to raise money because of the region in which we operate, despite the fact that we are doing well,” he said. “It pushed us to be more lean and aware of specific economics, profitability and burn rate. And with market shifts, we were still able to show that we had grown significantly with an outstanding unit economy. So fundraising was easier because we had grown so much that VCs couldn’t ignore us anymore.”
Daegwon Che, a general partner at BOND, one of those venture capital firms, said his firm’s main investment in Yassir is based on the belief that technology will “reshape” consumer relationships with transportation, food and financial services around the world. “These investments are an extension of that belief in an underserved but dynamic, fast growing region. Having appeared in North Africa, the application has already become indispensable for users in critical aspects of their lives,” he added.
Source: https://cablefreetv.org/yassir-invests-150m-in-its-bond-led-super-app-by-mary-meeker-cablefree-tv/