With over 20 years of experience in the digital industry, he has held several senior positions.

Moroccan entrepreneur Larbi Alaoui Belrhiti (photo), co-founder and co-CEO of YoLa Fresh, is on a mission to transform the fresh produce sector in Africa. Leveraging technology and data, he aims to enhance the entire fruit and vegetable processing chain, from cultivation to consumption.

Through his startup YoLa Fresh, founded in 2023 with Youssef Mamou, he connects farmers with fresh produce retailers to bolster their businesses. The startup harnesses data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to predict demand and supply, price dynamics, and other key metrics.

Belrhiti and his co-founder’s primary objective with YoLa Fresh is to eliminate all intermediaries in the food supply chain, enabling retailers to cut costs and farmers to maximize profits more efficiently.

A holder of a master’s degree in computer science from Polytechnique Montréal, Canada, obtained in 2004, Belrhiti is also an alumnus of HEC Paris, where he earned a master’s degree in business administration in 2013.

Before YoLa Fresh, he established several companies. In 2005, he founded TheMafiaBoss.com, an online Mafia-themed game, which he ran as CEO until 2012. In the same year, he also founded Avito.ma, a Moroccan online classified ads site, which he led as Chairman and CEO until 2017, when it was integrated into the Spanish ad group Adevinta (formerly Schibsted).

The entrepreneur’s professional journey began in 2004 at Oracle as a software engineer. He later worked as a consultant at Accenture, a business services company. In 2017, he joined Jumia as the managing director of the company in Morocco. In April 2022, he was promoted to Managing Director of Jumia Express Logistics, a position he held until the inception of YoLa Fresh.

Melchior Koba