Egyptian startup Yalla Fel Sekka (YFS), which specializes in logistics and on-demand delivery, has completed a $7 million Series A financing round. The funding, announced this week, will support the company’s business in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

As part of this expansion plan, YFS says it will build 20 to 40 dark stores in several cities by next year. Dark stores are retail shops, closed to the public, that serve as warehouses for other businesses

“What’s important to say is anything that has to do with quick commerce or instant delivery requires a new form of infrastructure on the ground to be close to your customers, technology, operations. All of that is radically different from the type of infrastructure we saw when we were not dealing with quick commerce. But now this is what it is all about for YFS, to become the main player and the leader of offering these logistics services for commerce,” said Khashayar Mahdavi, YFS co-founder.

Yalla Fel Sekka operates on a Business-to-Business-to-Customer model. When a customer places an order online, the startup picks it up from one of its dark stores built to hold products for customers from various industries, including grocery, pharmacy, and e-commerce, and makes the delivery. The service, which can be accessed via web or mobile, offers users the ability to track the delivery of their order online. Yalla Fel Sekka already claims a fleet of nearly 1,000 active motorcycle and van drivers and 3,000 on the waiting list.

According to Yasmine Abdel Karim, co-founder of the company, nearly 10,000 orders are recorded per day and the gross volume of goods is increasing at a monthly rate of 20% with a customer retention rate above 90%.

Adoni Conrad Quenum