Yassir, an Algerian startup founded in 2017 provides on-demand services such as ride-hailing and last-mile delivery, has raised a $30 million Series A round.
The investment came from a long list of VCs and angel investors. VCs include WndrCo, DN Capital, Kismet Capital, Spike Ventures, Quiet Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, FJ Labs, VentureSouq, Nellore Capital and Moving Capital. The angel investors include Cleo Sham of Uber; Thomas Layton of Upwork, Opentable and Metaweb; Rohan Monga of Gojek; and Hannes Graah of Spotify and Revolut.
The company said in a statement that most of the investors from its $13.25 million seed round, which was previously undisclosed, participated as well.
Yassir has seen exponential growth since launching four years ago. Last year, it was part of Y Combinator’s winter batch as the first Algerian startup in the accelerator. In terms oftraction, over 3 million people and 40,000 partners in all its markets now use the platform. Tayebi said that Yassir generates revenues by taking a commission on the services it offers.
This round of funding makes Yassir the most funded startup in Algeria and one of the most funded in the Maghreb and MENA region. Tayebi isn’t coy about saying his company aims for regional dominance in its category. Yassir also plans to gain market share outside the region into other markets, primarily sub-Saharan Africa and other “strategic geographies.”
The company will use the investment to achieve that as well as consolidate growth in its existing markets by launching new products and improving existing ones.
Yassir also plans to triple the size of its engineering team, a department the company is also particular about building locally.
– TechCrunch