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Global ambitions drive Algerian tech start-up Yassir
Despite the country's notoriously complex business climate, taxi and home-delivery firm Yassir has millions of users and is expanding across Africa.
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An employee prepares a basket of groceries at the storage department of the Algerian delivery company Yassir, in the capital Algiers on February 23, 2022. (AFP/Ryad Kramdi)
I
t's the Algerian start-up that made good: despite the country's notoriously complex business climate, taxi and home-delivery firm Yassir has millions of users and is expanding across Africa.
"We made it our mission to create a model of success that was genuinely, 100-percent Algerian, to develop local talent and show that it's possible to create added value in Algeria," said co-founder Noureddine Tayebi.
Patience has been key as they navigate the country's archaic bureaucracy, the bugbear of investors and one that creates particularly tough terrain for new entrants.
"Bureaucracy is one obstacle that we have to overcome. I can't say it's easy, but you have to deal with it and move forward," Tayebi told AFP.
It's a sign of changing times in Algeria, which in 2020 passed a law on start-ups and created a ministry to promote them.
Since he launched Yassir five years ago with fellow engineer Mehdi Yettou, the company has rolled out across the Maghreb region and beyond.
Late last year they raised some $30 million from American investors, cash they plan to pump into an ambitious expansion plan.
