Whether among the buildings of Empire World populating the Erbil skyline or in older neighborhoods across the Kurdistan Region, red-uniformed men on motorbikes – with a red box ensconced on their back seats – deliver what the company describes as “happiness to your doorstep.”

Regardless of one’s preferred mantra, Yadgar Merani’s Lezzoo super app has certainly created an entrepreneurial sensation among a sea of new businesses in Kurdistan. 

Lezzoo is more than just a food-delivery app. Its customers can order food from their favorite restaurants, do their supermarket shopping online, buy pet food, procure miscellaneous goods from local start-ups, send flowers and gifts, purchase phone and internet cards, and even order water from Lezzoo’s dark store warehouse, which serves as a fulfilment center for water distribution.

When I ask the 28-year-old Merani about the start of his company’s journey, he laughs, recalling how the CTO, Rekar, delivered Lezzoo’s first order five years ago with his own car. Back then, the start-up had only three cofounders but it now boasts more than 600 employees. Two cofounders remain today: Merani and Rekar Botani.

I meet Merani at Lezzoo’s headquarters on Erbil’s 100-meter road. 

Unlike the classic stereotypical image of CEOs in my part of the world – dressed in suits and ties with a pinch of superiority – Merani welcomes me in jeans, a shirt, and a water bottle in hand, and emits a vibe of close engagement with his team in its open, modern office space. 

As we relocate to a meeting room, he points to a group of young men with laptops in one of the shared working spaces. “They are our developers,” he says proudly.

It is a spacious, modest space fostering collaborative work and creativity. Unsurprisingly, there is no excessive wooden furniture or a long CEO nameplate on the door in gold. Merani’s team is a young, lively, energetic workforce. We exchange warm smiles and nods. 

Imagining a new digital landscape

Merani, residing in Erbil but originally from Duhok, is a political science and international business graduate with a master’s in legal and political philosophy from UCL. It was in London while studying political philosophy when Merani spotted a Dileveroo rider, which inspired his journey to build Lezzoo. 

Companies like Lezzoo are building the digital infrastructure of the Kurdistan Region and creating much-needed, early-career jobs. These start-ups are also quick and impactful, providing bottom-up support for the government’s larger visions for economic and social development. 

Lezzoo has veritably transformed the landscape for apps in the Kurdistan Region and succeeded in instilling a new culture in a society where delivery – especially food delivery – was rare.

I was curious how Lezzoo was being affected by competing foreign companies with abundant financial resources entering the market. “The foreign companies provide awareness – mass education really – about how to use the platforms, which adds to their popularity,” he said. “Delivery competitors amplify the message, raise awareness among consumers, and encourage them to use mobile applications, thus giving Lezzoo a new customer base without having to do any marketing. With the arrival of foreign competitors, our orders have increased,” he assured me.

When I ask Merani about his biggest challenge to date, he sighs: “Covid. We went from 1,100 orders a day to zero overnight.” 

Looking past the glass windows of the meeting room, it was easy to conclude that the company had recovered. In fact, it has thrived. I decide to leave the questions and details about the company’s Covid experiences for another time. 

A journey full of challenges

Experienced human capital has been a notable challenge for Lezzoo, yet the company remains determined to serve the local community by offering employment opportunities. More than 80 percent of employees are local.

Merani’s vision for Lezzoo tracks closely with global success platforms such as Indonesia’s Gojek super app, which currently accounts for approximately 1.5% of Indonesia’s GDP, and has revolutionized the country’s digital economy.

The founders of Lezzoo received a seven-figure round of seed funding from Y Combinator, an accelerator in San Francisco co-founded by Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston, whose investment portfolio includes start-ups like Dropbox, Airbnb, DoorDash, Coinbase, Instacart, and Reddit.

Merani reminisces about how, at the age of 23, he was pitching to venture firms that were continents away from where Lezzoo was to be established. “I had never pitched to anyone,” he recounts. “I remember looking around thinking: I am from Erbil but am in San Francisco conversing with Harvard and Cambridge graduates and some of the world’s leading entrepreneurs.” 

The Lezzoo cofounders at that time could not attend due to visa-approval issues. “I was all alone. I had arranged many meetings and as soon as anyone heard ‘Iraq’, I was dismissed. I received so many rejections. Iraq was a solid ‘No!’ for investors.” 

Merani’s driven nature, ambitious thinking, and wide vision began with an app that serviced 12 restaurants in Erbil and ten in Duhok. Today, there are over 1,300 restaurants in Erbil present and 380 in Duhok. “It wasn’t an easy journey. I went to the Family Mall in Duhok and personally approached each restaurant in the food court.” As he recounts these experiences, he speaks with passion and determination; it is evident he has been involved in every detail and decision in the app’s journey, big and small.

What’s next?

I am eager to glean what is next for Lezzoo, knowing that Merani’s start-up is more than a business; it carries core values, a story, and a mission. He enthusiastically says, “for Lezzoo, it is just the start!”

The super app is now connecting suppliers to retailers, creating an entire supply chain, going as far as linking farmers to urban centers and much more. 

One cannot end a meeting with Merani without asking about the meaning of the name, Lezzoo. His creativity and innovation shine at their brightest as he replies: “Lez, in the Kurdish Badini dialect, means ‘quick’, and zoo in Sorani is ‘quick’. So, it is Quick-Quick!

I would have never thought of that. 

Dr. Sazan M. Mandalawi is a consultant, pursuing her passion in youth education.