When Vendese launched in January 2020, it sought to address the challenges and shortcomings of Nigeria’s highly fragmented food sector by using a marketplace model that connects suppliers and farms with restaurants and food businesses, with 24-hour delivery.
But over the next two months, Vendese shifted from his intermediary role—after seeing some of these businesses complain about delivery times, the quality of food offerings, and lack of preparation—to a place where he strengthened his relationship with food. Suppliers buy, store and deliver discount products in bulk through third-party logistics partners.
The YC-backed food procurement platform has doubled down on its pivot — closing a $3.2 million seed round for the company last October — with $30 million in Series A funding (split between $20 million in equity and $10 million in debt).
In an interview with TechCrunch, CEO Tunde Kara said Vendese plans to use the investment to deepen operations, strengthen its presence in eight cities in Nigeria and Ghana (the company recently expanded to the latter), enter new markets and build new products. Increases customer efficiency.
“We’re building technology to move food from the point of production to the point of consumption,” Cara said of his company on a drive-in call. “Everything we build at Vendese: finance, logistics, warehousing, inventory management, is tailored to ensure that food flows efficiently from production to consumption.”
Vendease enables African restaurants and food businesses to purchase supplies, access financial services and strengthen their businesses. There is a reason why Vendease is deeply committed to improving efficiency in this supply chain. According to the company, most customers, including restaurants and food businesses, hospitals, hotels and schools, suffer annual losses of $100 billion due to various factors. From unreliable supply and waste to making informed purchasing decisions, the information available to finance purchases with little or no capital. Its platform, described as a series of stacks, is designed to reduce waste and help food businesses thrive.
The platform says it has moved about 400,000 metric tons of food to more than 2,000 customers and has helped save nearly $2 million in procurement costs and more than 10,000 man-hours in the past 12 months. Kara, who co-founded the company with Olumide Fayankin, Gatumi Aliyu and Wale Oyepeju, also mentioned that Vendese has saved its clients about $500,000 from overspending. The CEO attributed this development to the full use of business data and the necessary resources – especially inventory management – at each stage of their journey, including delivery routes: Vendease has reduced its delivery time from 24 to 12 hours.
“Because businesses don’t have the right information, they often buy what they don’t need. We help them solve that problem in two ways,” said Kara, commenting on the company’s growth. “One, because businesses know they can get anything on the platform within 12 hours, they don’t need to store some of the things they used to store. Two, you can also track what you buy and know how much is left before you need to buy again.
While applying data on how Vendease has raised working capital at BNPL, there has been a change in strategy from last year: instead of using its books, the company now provides financing through platforms with banks and financial institutions. To date, businesses have acquired over $12 million worth of inventory through the embedded finance product. The company says its revenue has grown 5x in the past year, thanks to deals it makes with suppliers. Monetization of the lending business is yet to come.
Founders of Vendease
Ultimately, Vendesse is building an operating system that will automate the flow of food from farm to restaurant, positioning itself as a plug-and-play solution for African restaurants and food businesses that have yet to start in the next three to five years. . The participation of lead investors in this round, TLcom Capital and Partech Africa (both of which control large pan-African funds), bodes well for that plan, the CEO said, adding that with both investors on board, his company has backers “ready to go.” long journey”
Telkom Capital Partner Andreata Muforo and Partech Africa General Partner Cyril Colon are backing Vendese because they believe it unlocks significant value in Africa’s fragmented food supply chain and offers robust solutions that impact critical issues in the food system. In a statement shared by Vendace on the continent. Other investors in the round include existing investors VentureSouq, Hustle fund, Hack VC, GFR Fund, Kube VC, Magic Fund and Kairos Angels (the company has raised debt from the local financial market, according to the statement).
For a non-fintech business, Vendee’s equity round closed somewhat quickly despite discussions around a cooling capital market, people involved told TechCrunch. The interest of investors like OneOrder and TopUp Mama in the business and the emergence of other players indicate a huge growth area in this market segment where the needs of restaurants and food businesses are prioritized. This is even more true in light of rising inflation and global food shortages, with food prices 42 percent higher between 2014 and 2016 than they were according to the Food Price Index.
“What’s important to us about our current growth and impact is global food shortages and rising prices, Vendease is helping our customers save big and provide relative stability to their inventory levels. It protects them (to a large extent) from the worst of the current global shortages,” Cara said. He commented, “What excites us is that as we expand and deploy our technology in Africa and the rest of the world, we can make a bigger impact. That’s what keeps us going.”
