Egyptian delivery platform Appetito is acquiring identical startup Lamma which operates in the Maghreb regions of Morocco and Tunisia.
Appetito is in the business of delivering groceries and household products from its dark stores existing across three Egyptian cities – a service referred to as on-demand delivery or q-commerce. The deal to acquire Lamma is expected to be completed by the third quarter of this year.
In the statement it issued, Appetito failed to disclose the size and terms of the deal. Its CEO, Shehab Mokhtar also refused to provide information about the deal. According to sources, however, the deal size was between $10 million to $15 million. CEO Shebab Mokhtar refused to make a comment concerning this speculation.
Speaking about how Appetito financed the acquisition of Lamma not so long after raising $2.5 million, the CEO did say that “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. Moreover, we’ll be closing an eight-figure round soon to foster our expansion even further.”
Lamma was founded by Yassir El Ismaili, Hamza Guesi, and Koussi Aymen. Back in 2020, Lamma launched in Tunisia as a carpooling service and quickly shifted to a quick commerce platform. It delivers groceries, fashion items, and personal care items to people in Tunisia and Morocco.
As part of the deal, Lamma’s team, its three dark stores, and its distribution centre will all be integrated into Appetito with Lamma’s CEO Yassir El Ismaili joining Appetito as its Chief expansion and growth officer.
According to Appetito, the deal will make it Africa’s largest q-commerce player, and says this claim is based on the number of markets it currently operates in. “No other q-commerce player in Africa operates in such big markets,” Appetito’s CEO said.
It is the company’s plan to become the biggest q-commerce player in both established and emerging markets.
Paul Femi Balo is the founder and publisher of TechBooky. He covers artificial intelligence, African technology, digital infrastructure, enterprise technology and the global digital economy.
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