Lamma, a Tunisian rapid commerce startup, has launched in Morocco, marking the start of its African development

Lamma, a Tunisian business that creates short commerce apps for young, active Africans, is expanding internationally with a debut in Morocco.

Lamma, founded by Yassir El Ismaili El Edrissi, Hamza Guesmi, and Koussi Aymen in 2020, uses a mix of dark storefronts and its partner network to deliver groceries, food, personal care, electronics, and fashion items to users in less than 45 minutes.

It started off as a ridesharing app, but after participating in the Flat6Labs Tunis accelerator program in June of last year, it shifted its focus to logistics.

“We feel that e-commerce in Africa is hampered by inefficiencies in the final mile and payment processing.” “Lamma is overcoming challenges like cash on delivery and the difficulty to deliver on the same day,” El Idrissi told Disrupt Africa.

Solving such problems has aided it in fast gaining traction. In its initial market of Tunis, Lamma has seen month-on-month growth of more than 50% since pivoting to fast commerce. It now has over 1,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) and works with more than 150 merchants, and it received an undisclosed investment from Orange Ventures in October to help it expand internationally.

“We’re planning to expand into additional African countries, beginning with Morocco,” El Idrissi stated.

Lamma will attempt to expand into Sub-Saharan African markets after taking a commission on each sale it leads to a partner and operating a standard buy-then-sell business model with its dark storefronts. El Idrissi believes the team will succeed despite the challenges of being a fresh entrant into a new market.

“Of course, partners have a hard time trusting a new player at first, especially in the food and beverage market. “However, the quality of the team, our hard work, and traction are gradually resolving this issue,” he said.