US-based super app Yassir has secured USD 150 million in Series B funding to expand in Africa and the Middle East. This growth has moved Yassir closer to its overarching plan to provide banking and payments.

According to company officials, providing on-demand services in food and transportation was the entry point that allowed Yassir to gain users’ trust, which he argues is one reason most Africans are unbanked, for this endeavour. Yassir was built as a super app that included services for people. The company offering ride-hailing and food and grocery delivery services (via Yassir Express) in 45 cities across six countries, and as per the press release, three out of five on-demand activities in Algeria, its first market, are made via the platform.

Why Yassir plans to offer banking payment services? Over 65% of Morocco’s (one of Yassir’s main markets) population does not own a bank account, and according to a 2018 McKinsey report on growth and innovation in African retail banking, 57% of the continent’s population lack any form of a bank account. Yet, the report also highlights that 40% of Africa’s banked population prefers digital channels for transactions. Therefore, Yassir’s thesis is that providing consumers with a mobile banking solution as part of a broader suite of services will meet an essential need in the African market, where 50% of the population can access the internet.

Company officials said that their business model from day one was a super app model and getting into payments. When they first started, the observation was that most people were unbanked, and the number one reason is that people don’t trust the banking systems in Morocco for various reasons. They thought they could provide on-demand services that solve immediate needs around where people spent their money.

Yassir, an all-in-one ecosystem app, provides its customers with a single-point solution for managing their day-to-day activities, from traveling to work to ordering groceries and meals. Its financial services serve this multisided marketplace ecosystem, which includes 8 million users (over 2. 5x from last year) and 100,000 partners consisting of drivers, couriers, merchants, suppliers, and wholesalers, according to the press release.

Yassir is leveraging this network, which also includes a B2B ecommerce retail part that connects fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) suppliers with merchants, for its payments play assembled on top wallet provision and deployment of drivers and couriers as money agents. .