Algerian on-demand transport platform Yassir has raised a US$30 million Series A funding round to allow it to grow in existing markets and expand into new ones.
Founded in 2017 as an on-demand ride-hailing platform, Yassir now also offers last mile delivery services and works with more than 40,000 partners across Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
Its US$30 million Series A round was led by a large network of key strategic investors including WndrCo, DN Capital, Kismet Capital, Spike Ventures and Quiet Capital, and also includes Endeavor Catalyst, FJ Labs, VentureSouq, Nellore Capital, Moving Capital and various notable angel investors.
Yassir had previously raised US$13.25M in an undisclosed seed round in which Y Combinator was a participant. The startup’s co-founder Noureddine Tayebi thanked all the investors, and explained how the funding would be used to help Yassir grow.
“We will be using the funds to triple the size of our engineering team to meet our product ambitions, consolidate our growth in the existing markets via current and new products, and expand into new markets primarily in Sub-Saharan African countries but also into other strategic geographies,” he said.
“Yassir is not just a company to me. It was founded with a fourfold mission. First, we want to create a 100 per cent local tech startup success model which will be emulated by others and more so Yassir team members. Second, we want to empower the local talent and more importantly the technical talent which often leaves the region, mainly to Europe, to pursue further studies or find jobs.”
Yassir has already started its expansion into new markets, primarily focusing on West Africa and some parts of Europe, and will be launching in these markets as its next phase.
“Yassir is a natural evolution of companies seen elsewhere in the world. The moment we met the team we saw the opportunity of entering an enormous market with a service taking the best of models we have seen elsewhere. We’re thrilled to be part of this supercharged journey,” said Anthony Saleh, partner at WndrCo.
