An Egyptian online grocery and household delivery platform, Appetito acquires Lamma, an identical startup, with operations in the Maghreb regions of Tunisia and Morocco.
According to sources, the deal size was estimated at $10 million – $15 million and is expected to close by the end of Q3. This acquisition is coming after Appetito’s $2.5 million raise.
For Shehab Moktar, CEO of Appetito, Appetito’s solid management of available resources has helped finance their operations as they will be closing an eight-figure round soon to foster expansion even further.
“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” he said.
Speaking of the newly acquired platform, Lamma was founded by CEO Yassir El Ismali El Idrissi, former General Manager at Careem, Hamza Guesmi, Koussi Aymen and also enjoys the backing of Orange Ventures.
Lamma launched in Tunisia as a carpooling service two years ago. It has however ventured into e-commerce by delivering groceries, personal care and fashion items in under 45 minutes to customers in Tunisia and subsequently in Morocco this year.
In the arrangement, El Idrissi will join Appetito as its chief expansion and growth officer as both teams aim to explore strategic synergies to ensure smooth business operation.
Lamma’s three dark stores and distribution centre will be integrated into Apetito’s already existing 11 darkroom stores across three cities in the North African country.
Appetito which currently operates in big African markets such as; Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia have made claims to be the largest q-commerce player in Africa for both frontier and emerging markets.
While Appetito allows scheduled daily or weekly deliveries, both platforms deliver goods between 45 minutes to two hours.
Q-commerce platforms have been leveraging the change in consumer buying habits following the pandemic. Their estimated delivery time has remained a unique selling point as these days, consumers often opt to buy groceries and household items online.
However, the industry has continued to experience an exponential increase in competition as the number of online grocery delivery platforms continues to spring up with some promising a fast 25-minute delivery as against the popular 45 minutes delivery.
The glaring competition following the increase in online platforms reiterated the need for a more strategic approach like consolidation. Big players such as Getir, Flink, Gorillas and Gopuff have since acquired smaller platforms like Weezy, Cajoo, Frichti and Dija.
The acquisition deal between Appetito and Lamma is a first in the African market. The company’s prioritization of quality and affordability over speed and convenience is one of the reasons Mokhtar is confident in the company’s continuous growth.
“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,”
