In barely five years Yassir, the “Algerian Uber”, has established itself in the Maghreb, Canada and France. Next step to extend this Taxi and meal delivery application, Senegal, Nigeria and South Africa.
Created by Noureddine Tayebi and Mehdi Yettou, two Algerian engineers, the start-up, very popular in the Maghreb and which operates via a 100% Algerian application, stood out at the end of 2021 by raising 30 million dollars from American investors. .
A graduate of the Polytechnic School of Algiers, Mr. Tayebi was an engineer-researcher in a large technological firm in Silicon Valley (United States), after a doctorate from the American University Stanford, when he came to Algeria to create a order taxi app.
Launched in mid-2017 in Algiers, a city of four million inhabitants with a chronic lack of public transport, Yassir was already present in Oran, Constantine and Annaba at the beginning of 2018. It was baptized Yassir, a play on words between “easy” and “roll” in Arabic.
“It was a mission (for us) to create a truly 100% Algerian model of success, allowing us to rehabilitate local talent and show that we can create added value in Algeria”
Noureddine Tayebi, co-founder of the start-up Yassirat AFP
The two engineers who divide their time between Algiers and California have had to be patient to face the Algerian bureaucracy known to be finicky and often decried as not being conducive to business. “Bureaucracy is one of the obstacles that must be overcome. I’m not saying it’s easy, but you have to deal with it and move on”says Mr. Tayebi.
Today, Yassir is present in 25 cities between Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Canada and France and claims four million users. The company has just launched in Senegal and plans to establish itself elsewhere in West Africa before the “big markets” in Africa (South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt). Rapid development despite competition from other applications such as Uber or Heetch. Since its launch, Yassir has generated more than 40,000 indirect jobs, mainly drivers and delivery people. Not to mention the 600 or so IT specialists who optimize connections and orders.
The start-up records “a 20 to 40% increase in monthly turnover”ensures Noureddine Tayebi, but to grow, she must also recruit hundreds of brains. “Yassir is already the largest employer of computer engineers in the Maghreb and we want to triple or even quadruple this figure”indicates its co-founder before adding: “We are very ambitious. The goal is to create the biggest technology company, not only in Africa, but in the world. To reach it, you have to be in a lot of regional, continental and global markets.”
Beyond taxis on order, the group has diversified into meal delivery and online groceries with Yassir Express. Today, it is preparing to develop its own online payment services, a solution still in its infancy in Algeria. For the moment, customers pay for their orders on receipt and in cash.