Chowdeck, a Nigerian on-demand delivery service, has secured $2.5 million in seed funding, which it will use to strengthen its position in the Nigerian market.
Investors such as FounderX Ventures, True Culture Funds, Hoaq Fund, Levare Ventures, Haleakala Ventures, YCombinator, Goodwater Capital, and True Culture Funds alongside angel investors like Ayo Arikawe, Co-founder and CTO of Thrive Agric; Shola Akinlade, Co-founder and CEO of Paystack; Ezra Olubi, Co-founder and CTO of Paystack; Sudeep Ramani, Founder of Sportybet; Karthik Ramakrishnan (Amazon); Simon Borrero and Juan Pablo Ortega, co-founders of Rappi.
Co-founder and CEO Femi Aluko, a former principal engineer at Paystack, got inspiration for the startup in 2021 after witnessing the speed of food delivery services during a visit to Dubai. That speed of delivery and execution has helped the two-year-old startup quickly grow to 500,000 users in eight Nigerian cities. It has added 200,000 users in the last six months alone.
Last year, it signed exclusive deals with Nigeria’s largest QSR brand, Chicken Republic, and followed that up with the addition of Shoprite. Those deals have helped the startup gain more users and strengthen its position in the Nigerian market.
With fresh funding, it plans to scale its services to more Nigerian cities before the end of 2024.
“We know that Nigerians love good food, and we just want to make it as easy as possible for them to access the food they desire. Chowdeck was birthed to fulfil this purpose, and we are committed to delivering truly excellent experiences for our customers, vendors, and riders,” Aluko said in a statement.
Nigeria’s on-demand delivery landscape has witnessed significant growth thanks to rising urbanization rates, increased Internet and smartphone penetration, and changing customer habits.
What Statista Has to Say
Statista projects revenues in the online food delivery market to hit $2.83 billion in 2024, with the market growing at 15.03% between 2024 and 2029.
Still, Nigeria’s food delivery market poses major challenges to industry players, with incessant fuel scarcity, bad roads, and heavy traffic in major cities hindering service delivery. A struggling economy also means that potential customers are strapped for cash.
As an example, both Jumia Food and Bolt Food elected to leave the Nigerian market in 2023, citing a need to streamline resources and focus on profitability. Still, Chowdeck, which launched the same year as Bolt Food, has been on an upward trajectory.
Chowdeck Founder
Femi Aluko
Femi is the co-founder and CEO of Chowdeck. He was a former Principal Engineer at Paystack, an African payments company acquired by Stripe in 2020. When he started at Paystack in 2017 (as the fifth engineer and the first Core Payments Engineer), he was responsible for building the core payment infrastructure for multiple payment methods. As a Principal Engineer, he was in charge of designing multiple core systems like the circuit breaker for routing over 100k transactions daily.
Olumide Ojo
Olumide is co-founder and CTO of Chowdeck. Olumide has spent the better part of the last five years working in African fintech companies across various individual contributor and leadership roles such as Technical Lead, Engineering Manager, and, more recently, Principal Engineer at Paystack. His contributions span the entire technical stack from backend to frontend and beyond.
Lanre Yusuf
Lanre is the co-founder and COO of Chowdeck. He is a former Engineering Lead at Crown Interactive where he led a team of software engineers in developing and managing business support solutions for a leading power utility company in Nigeria.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Chowdeck do?
Chowdeck is a technology company that provides a food delivery hub that connects both food vendors and consumers. This potentially allows food vendors to deliver meals seamlessly while also providing consumers with a platform to order meals from their favourite restaurants in their city.
How does Chowdeck make money?
Chowdeck claims it makes a profit on each delivery. But despite the growth, the estimated delivery time on the app has lengthened from 15–25 minutes to 31.9 minutes, co-founder Femi Aluko told Rest of World. “Every Chowdeck rider is aggressive about their order [and] you can’t delay them for [even] three minutes.”
How to be a vendor on Chowdeck in Nigeria?
After downloading the app, kindly register and upload your menu. You can follow the guide here to upload your menu. After these steps are completed, we’ll send you a copy of the vendor contract, as well as review and activate your restaurant on the Chowdeck app.
When did Chowdeck start in Nigeria?
Chowdeck is a Nigerian technology company that connects restaurants and consumers, providing a wide range of services. It was founded in October 2021, and it has quickly gained attention in the growing online food delivery market within the country.
Does Chowdeck work in Abuja?
Yes. Delivering meals, groceries and medicine with ease! Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, Asaba, Benin City, Abeokuta, Ilorin and Port Harcourt.
How do I contact Chowdeck?
By using this Platform, you agree to be legally bound by these terms. If you do not understand any of the terms of this agreement, please contact us @orjioko[email protected]. We’re more than happy to guide you.
