28 Startups, One Delivery Problem: Algeria’s Last-Mile War

Algeria has 28 logistics technology startups fighting over the same delivery corridor. That number — tracked by Tracxn as of January 2026 — is extraordinary for a market of Algeria’s size, and it signals two things simultaneously: the e-commerce logistics opportunity is real and growing, and the market is heading for a shakeout that most of these players will not survive.

The stakes are high because logistics is not a peripheral problem in Algerian e-commerce — it is the problem. You can build the most elegant marketplace, the most compelling product catalog, and the slickest mobile app, but if the package does not arrive reliably, the consumer does not trust it. In Algeria, the delivery question is existential.

Algeria’s Last-Mile Problem

The structural challenges that make Algerian last-mile delivery hard are not unique to the country, but they compound in unusual ways.

Cash-on-delivery (COD) dominates. According to multiple industry analyses, 90–95% of all e-commerce transactions in Algeria are paid in cash on delivery. This single fact reshapes the entire unit economics of delivery. A COD delivery requires a courier to collect cash at the door, account for it, and remit it to the merchant — adding friction, float, and fraud risk to every transaction. More critically, if the customer is not home or refuses the package, the courier returns with the item and without payment, generating a full-cost delivery at zero revenue.

The address system is informal. Algeria’s 58 wilayas have a five-digit postal code system, but it is inconsistently applied — particularly in peri-urban and rural areas where street names do not exist. Deliveries are coordinated by phone call, GPS pin, or proximity description (“near the blue mosque, third house after the gas station”). This dramatically slows delivery loops and makes automated routing nearly impossible at scale.

Return rates are punishing. While no official Algerian e-commerce return rate data has been published, anecdotal evidence from platform operators and logistics founders consistently places return or refusal rates in the 20–40% range for fashion and electronics. At those rates, the effective cost per delivered-and-retained unit is two to three times the headline delivery fee.

Infrastructure gaps are severe. Algeria’s highway and rail networks are inadequate for efficient freight movement. Tracking technology deficits mean goods can disappear from view mid-route. In the Saharan south — Tamanrasset, Illizi, Adrar — even established logistics players refuse service. Yalidine, widely cited as Algeria’s most prominent delivery company, explicitly excludes these wilayas from its coverage map.

The 28-Startup Landscape

Algeria’s logistics startup field can be mapped along three axes: the customer served (B2C end-customer vs. B2B merchant), the geography targeted (Algiers-urban vs. national), and the problem being solved (last-mile delivery vs. freight optimization vs. warehouse management).

The majority cluster in the B2C urban last-mile segment — competing directly on the same Algiers delivery routes, to the same customer base, with largely similar COD service models. This is where the oversupply is most acute and where consolidation pressure is highest. The more differentiated players have moved laterally: into B2B freight optimization, warehouse-as-a-service, API-first logistics management, or international expansion.

The Major Players: Deep Dives

TemTem is the most visible. Founded in 2017 in Algiers as a ride-hailing platform, TemTem has evolved into one of Algeria’s most ambitious super apps — covering groceries, online shopping, at-home healthcare, home repairs, carpooling, and payment services. It has raised $5.7 million in total funding ($1.7M seed, $4M Series A), operates across 21 wilayas with 4,000+ drivers and 200,000+ clients, and secured a strategic partnership with Jumia Food to handle restaurant delivery logistics in Algiers and Oran. TemTem’s most distinctive product is its Diaspora service — allowing Algerians living abroad to purchase goods and services for family members back home, settling payments in foreign currency while delivery happens domestically. This taps a market — the roughly 1.5 million Algerian diaspora in France alone — that no pure-play logistics startup addresses.

Maystro Delivery is the most operationally impressive bootstrapped player. Founded in 2019 by Walid Laribi, Lagrid Abdelhalim, and Hebbar Walid Choukri, Maystro has built a logistics operation serving 2,000+ business clients through 16 warehouses across Algeria and Tunisia with a 500-person team — entirely without external funding. Its model is B2B-first: merchants hand off all logistics to Maystro, which manages pickup, storage, delivery, and COD collection end-to-end. This freeing-of-merchant-attention model has strong appeal to the e-commerce seller who wants to focus on product and marketing, not operational complexity. Maystro’s regional presence in Tunisia provides a cross-border logistics capability that purely Algerian players cannot match.

Yassir is the market’s financial heavyweight, though it is not a dedicated logistics play. Founded in 2017, Yassir has raised $180 million across its Series A ($30M) and Series B ($150M), operates in 6 countries and 45 cities, and counts 8 million+ users. Its logistics infrastructure — built to serve food and grocery delivery — gives it a dense last-mile network in Algerian cities. Yassir is the most likely consolidator in a market shakeout: it has the capital, the infrastructure, and the geographic reach to acquire or absorb smaller delivery players, and it has already demonstrated willingness to expand into fintech, suggesting an appetite for complementary verticals.

Opticharge has carved the most distinctive niche: B2B freight optimization. Its core insight is that 40% of transport trucks in Algeria operate empty on return deliveries — wasted capacity that represents a massive economic inefficiency. Opticharge’s digital platform matches shippers (food manufacturers, distributors) with freight forwarders who can utilize those return-trip slots, effectively halving the cost of freight for participants. With 220+ partner companies and a fleet of 1,800+ trucks, Opticharge has built substantial B2B traction. Its evolution from a simple freight marketplace in 2019 into a 360-degree logistics management solution within four years demonstrates the kind of product iteration that survives consolidation.

Colivraison has bet on API-first differentiation. Its logistics platform integrates directly with e-commerce websites via API, provides a centralized call center for delivery coordination, includes a Warehouse Management System (WMS), and offers end-to-end tracking for both merchants and end customers. This technical sophistication targets the growing segment of online sellers who have outgrown WhatsApp-based order management but are not yet large enough to build in-house logistics.

Unit Economics Reality

The fundamental unit economics challenge in Algerian last-mile delivery is the COD multiplier. A standard delivery in Algiers costs a logistics provider approximately DZD 300–500 ($2.20–$3.70) to execute. With 90%+ COD rates, every delivery involves cash collection, float management, and reconciliation costs on top of physical movement. Return deliveries — which can run at 20–40% — cost almost as much as forward deliveries while generating zero revenue. The effective cost per successful delivery is therefore significantly higher than the headline rate.

Most platforms price deliveries in the DZD 400–700 range for standard urban service. At these rates, the margin per delivery is thin even before returns — and returns destroy it. The platforms that can reduce return rates (through better product descriptions, phone confirmations before dispatch, or click-and-collect options) have structurally better economics than those that simply race to volume.

The Consolidation Thesis

History of logistics market development in comparable markets — Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria — suggests the sustainable equilibrium is 2–4 major players: one or two national generalists with comprehensive coverage, and one or two specialists (cold chain, B2B freight, rural coverage). Algeria is not at equilibrium with 28 players.

The consolidation trigger will likely come from one of three directions: a capital market tightening that cuts off funding to marginal players, a major platform (Yassir, an international logistics company) making acquisitions, or a regulatory development (formalized address system, COD collection licensing) that creates compliance costs that only well-capitalized players can absorb.

What is increasingly clear is that geographic breadth — genuine 48 or 58 wilaya coverage — is the primary defensible moat. The player that can reliably deliver to Sétif, Béchar, and Annaba, not just Algiers, will win the merchant relationships that matter most.

The Rural Delivery Gap

The rural delivery problem is Algeria’s most underserved logistics opportunity and its hardest technical challenge simultaneously. The most optimistic read is that Algerie Post — the national postal service — provides universal coverage across all 58 wilayas, and that tech-enabled logistics startups could partner with or integrate onto its last-mile infrastructure to reach customers that no private startup currently serves profitably. Morocco’s e-commerce logistics sector has pursued exactly this model through partnerships between startups and Maroc Poste.

No Algerian logistics startup has yet built a compelling rural delivery model. The startup that does — even at lower margins — will own a captive market with no competitors and first-mover pricing power.

Sources & Further Reading

• Top Logistics Tech Startups in Algeria — Tracxn
• Algerian Ride-Hailing Startup TemTem Raises $4M Series A — MENAbytes
• Walid Laribi Streamlines E-commerce Logistics with Maystro Delivery — We Are Tech Africa
• Algeria’s Yassir Picks Up $30M to Build a Super App — TechCrunch
• Algerian Super App Yassir Raises $150M Series B — Fintech News Africa
• Opticharge: La Startup qui Révolutionne le Transport — Algerie360
• Colivraison Company Profile — F6S
• E-commerce Boom in Algeria — Trends in Africa
• Logistics for All: A Major Territorial Challenge — Logist Africa
• The Best E-commerce Delivery Companies in Algeria — Kiostore