MOROCCO – Lamma, a last mile delivery startup designed for young, active Africans, is beginning its international expansion with a launch in Morocco.

Founded by Yassir El Ismaili El Edrissi, Hamza Guesmi and Koussi Aymen in 2020, Lamma delivers groceries, food, personal care, electronics and fashion items to users in less than 45 minutes, using a blend of dark stores and its partner network.

It actually began life as a ridesharing app but pivoted into logistics in June of last year after taking part in the Flat6Labs Tunis accelerator programme.

“We believe e-commerce in Africa is suffering from last mile and payment inefficiencies. Cash on delivery and inability to deliver on the same day are obstacles Lamma is solving,” El Idrissi said

Solving such challenges has helped it gain traction quickly. Since it pivoted to quick commerce, Lamma has seen month-on-month growth of above 50 per cent in its launch market of Tunis.

It now has over 1,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) and works with over 150 merchants, and in October secured an undisclosed investment from Orange Ventures to fuel its international expansion.

“We are preparing expansion to new African countries, starting with Morocco,” El Idrissi said.

Lamma, which takes a commission on each sale it brings to a partner and operates a traditional buy-then-sell business model with its dark stores, will subsequently look at moving into Sub-Saharan African markets. El Idrissi said the team has to overcome challenges being a new entrant into a new market, but believes it is set to thrive.

“Of course partners in the beginning have difficulties trusting a new player, especially out of the food and beverage industry. But the quality of the team, our hard work and the traction are solving this issue progressively,” he said.

In October 2021, the startup secured investment from Orange Ventures, the Venture Capital Fund of the Orange Group.

That investment came just after Lamma has launched its new Quick Commerce (Q-Commerce) application, which aims to revolutionize customer experience in Tunisia by delivering all everyday orders in less than 45 minutes.

In the last month the startup announced the acquisition of Farm Trust, a startup specializing in e-commerce products from healthy and ecological agriculture, as it accelerates the execution of its Quick Commerce strategy.

Farm Trust was founded in 2018 by Anis Mezghani and Wessim Khiari. The startup is an E-commerce platform for fruits and vegetables that provides traceability through blockchain.

With the acquisition, the Farm Trust brand will maintain its independence and continue to expand its product line. According to Farm Trust co-founder Wassim Khiari, the startup will also be able to expand abroad.

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