Israeli Food Delivery App, Haat Expands into Morocco

Haat, an Israeli food delivery app, has expanded into Morocco as it seeks to expand into the Middle East and North African markets. The food delivery App hopes to serve thousands of towns in the coming years. The Haat is adamant about reaching out to rural areas as well as cities.

In 2020, Hasan Abasi founded Haat from his office in the Arab town of Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel alongside his co-founder, Ali Ayoub. ‘Haat,’ which means “bring” in Arabic, addresses the unmet needs of Arab communities in Israel who do not always have the means to use traditional food delivery services.

Commenting about their expansion outside Israel, Hassan Abassi, a co-founder of Haat, said “Today we are an Israeli company, but we will become an international company. The company hopes to reach thousands of communities in the future years, both in Israel and outside of Morocco.”

The idea for the App came shortly before the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, when the CEO, who previously worked for Intel and Google, returned to his hometown of Umm al-Fahm with his wife from Haifa but was unable to place an order for delivery in the Arab world city of 180,000 people and 150 restaurants.

The country’s growing popularity of delivery apps, such as Glovo and Jumia, is driving Haat’s expansion into Morocco.

Since its inception, the app has received over one million orders, connecting Arab communities in Israel with 670 shops and restaurants.

Unlike food delivery apps like Wolt and UberEats, Haat accepts cash and credit card payments, with cash accounting for 80 percent of its revenue.

In addition, unlike other apps that require an exact address, it allows orders to be sent to the location of a user’s smartphone, as many houses in Arab towns and villages are not numbered.