Over the past couple of years, the last-mile delivery sector has witnessed a spike of new startup entrants, with most operating an asset-light model, focused on empowering small businesses by offering them shipping services via crowdsourced couriers. The growth in the number of players is not solely down to the pandemic and the subsequent boom in e-commerce. In fact the biggest spike in startup entrants was pre-Covid in 2019 with 28 new companies established, mostly in the courier space. Of the 102 last-mile delivery startups mapped by Wamda, 67 operate the courier model. 

To read more about the growth of last-mile delivery in the Middle East and North Africa, read the first part of our series on last-mile here.