Yango Deli Tech helps retailers in Middle East and Turkey to attain success online
▶ The tech company is currently seeking to capitalise on the UAE e-commerce market, writes
Max Avtukhov set up Yango Deli Tech last year with a belief that technology is the key to staying ahead of the curve. The UAE-based tech company supports traditional retailers with expertise and tools to help them transform from brick-and-mortar to online trade, a trend accelerated after the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The e-grocery market has seen significant growth in recent years, with more and more consumers turning to online platforms to shop for groceries. We provide proprietary technologies and expertise for retailers and e/q-commerce,” says Mr Avtukhov, the 32-year-old co-founder and chief executive of the company.
“Whether our clients have an existing store, store-in-store [grey store], or a dedicated dark store [a retail distribution centre that caters exclusively to online shopping], Yango Deli Tech has solutions for e-grocery to improve and simplify operational processes.”
The software as a service (SaaS) company has clients in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and is currently focused on capitalising on the e-commerce market in the UAE.
“Although we can serve customers in any location, our primary focus is the Middle East region, particularly the booming market in the UAE,” says Mr Avtukhov.
“We aspire to become the top player in the region by 2030.”
The Middle East and North Africa’s quick-commerce market is expected to reach about $47 billion by 2030, anchored by an acceleration in the grocery and food delivery categories, according to consultancy Redseer.
Q-commerce – also known as on-demand or rapid delivery – is generally defined as the ability to order goods and have them delivered within an hour. It is very much associated and can be interchanged with hyperlocal logistics, which covers a small, specific area where deliveries can take place in as fast as 10 minutes.
The q-commerce market is expected to expand at a compound annual rate of 17 per cent in the next decade, with groceries and food delivery still the dominating segments with a more than 80 per cent market share, Redseer estimates show.
Yango Deli Tech also provides a tech stack – a set of technologies that are stacked together to build an application – which allows businesses to scale faster, according to Mr Avtukhov.
The tech stack includes a variety of solutions for warehousing, commerce, delivery, client experience and analytics. Among the proprietary technologies are warehouse management systems and assortment management, stock tracking and product replenishment, technologies for assigning orders to couriers, smart routing solutions, as well as applications for customers, pickers and couriers.
The platform also provides live business intelligence dashboards to pivot and make informed business decisions, says Mr Avtukhov, an entrepreneur and an investment banker with more than 10 years of experience in e-grocery and related fields.
Yango Deli Tech estimates that by opting for this solution, companies can reduce error rates by 15 per cent, and their cancellation rates by 35 per cent – translating to revenue growth for the business.
The market is witnessing the launch of more specialised e-grocery companies, while large traditional retailers are going online as well.
“Consumers are becoming increasingly demanding in terms of speed and precision for their orders, but in order to be able to provide such high-quality service, companies require advanced technological solutions,” Mr Avtukhov says.
“We believe that with our proprietary tech, we can help local companies that want to capture the significant market share of e-grocery to fuel this exponential growth.”
The company is working on more advanced solutions incorporating latest technologies such as artificial intelligence. A “roboticised warehouse solution”, for instance, will be out shortly, says Mr Avtukhov.
The company, he says, will prioritise its investment in areas such as research and development “to ensure that our products remain innovative and up-to-date with the latest industry trends, including AI and robotics”.
Yango Deli Tech is self-funded and has no plans to raise capital in the short term.
“However, we do keep our options open and are in regular contact with the investment community,” says Mr Avtukhov.
“While we may explore potential funding opportunities in the future, we are committed to building a sustainable business that can grow and thrive without relying on outside investment.”
While actively developing its operations in the Middle East and Turkey, Yango Deli Tech is also looking to expand its presence to other global markets, such as Africa, Latin America and Asia.
“Our expansion plans are driven by our commitment to delivering exceptional technology solutions to our partners,” says Mr Avtukhov.
Commenting on the company’s profitability, Mr Avtukhov says: “We are at the investment stage with a clear path to profitability.
“We are confident in our growth trajectory and the potential for significant returns on our investments.”