The seed round, which was co-led by Quona Capital and FinTech Collective, also saw participation from institutional investors including Far Out Ventures and Outside VC, angels Doneci Kone and Julian Shapiro, and follow-on investment from Norrsken Foundation, Lofty Inc Capital and Enza Capital. Following its previous raise of $1.1 million, the current round brings Orda’s total funds raised to $4.5 million.

Founded by Guy Futi, Fikayo Akinwale, Mark Edomwande, Kunle Ogungbamila, and Namir El-Khouri in 2020, Orda’s vision is to help small-sized African restaurants optimize their business and achieve sustainable growth.

Speaking on why they backed Orda, Samatha Wulfson of FinTech Collective said, “Digitizing the long tail of restaurants across the continent presents an opportunity to tap into Africa’s largest consumer spend category. Not only does Orda’s omnichannel solution produce immediate efficiency gains for restaurants, but a roadmap encompassing embedded payments and credit also creates a path to tap into the flow of funds throughout an enormous food and beverage industry.”

Building an operating system for small and medium-sized African restaurants

Since its first fundraising announcement in January, Orda has grown its customer base to more than 600 restaurants across Nigeria and Kenya and is now processing over 500% more weekly orders for its customers.

This growth, the company says, is due to an obsession with helping small and medium-sized restaurants run their businesses better.

Small independent restaurants are the soul of Africa’s food service industry, representing the largest segment of the $50 billion industry. However, these restaurants have had limited access to technology solutions tailored to their needs.

Speaking on Orda’s focus on small restaurants, Guy Futi, Orda’s CEO and co-founder said, “From day one, Orda has been focused on building solutions for small and medium-sized restaurants. These businesses operate with slim profit margins and the power of Orda’s software and financial solutions can catapult their business. Our goal is to provide end-to-end solutions that help them optimize their operations so they become more prosperous.”

Before Orda, managers at these small restaurants, who often double as cooks, spent as many as four hours a day doing manual reconciliation, inventory management, and other administrative tasks. Now, through its products, Orda is enabling many African restaurants to optimize their business operations and scale distribution. Its array of products and services includes kitchen display systems, order and inventory management, integrations with the leading food aggregators (e.g. Glovo, Bolt Food, Chowdeck, Jise, Wabi2b, etc), accounting software, microsites, mobile apps and—soon to come—lending.

Even better, when restaurants use these products, Orda provides them with advanced business analytics that informs them of customer behaviour, which in turn helps with inventory optimization and loss prevention.

Building solutions for African restaurants has required certain considerations specific to the region. For example, despite being a primarily cloud-based solution, Orda’s application works offline allowing restaurants to continue to log data even when internet access is unavailable — the data syncs with the cloud application when the restaurant is back online.

The cloud operating software has also been built to have maximum functionality even when there is spotty internet service.

Modupe Alimi, manager at Korede Spaghetti, a popular small restaurant with branches in Nigeria’s metropolises of Yaba and Surulere, commented on Orda improving the restaurant’s operational efficiency saying, “[Before], we couldn’t keep count [of inventory and orders] because we were not that organized. With Orda, we can now keep everything in an account. We know everything that goes out through [pick-up] orders and delivery. We don’t need to hire more employees than necessary and that has made us more profitable.”

This kind of impact is what led Quona Capital to invest in Orda, according to Kofoworola Agbaje, Senior Investment Associate at the VC firm. “When a restaurant owner moves from pen and paper to a fully automated digital platform, it’s incredibly empowering,” said Agbaje. “Suddenly they have insights available to them that can improve their productivity and margins, enabling them to grow their businesses. A solution like Orda can have an outsized impact on small and medium-sized restaurants and the livelihoods of those who operate them, and we at Quona are delighted to support Orda in this important work.”

Orda’s founders have also attributed the startup’s growth over the last 12 months to the excellent team it has put together, a trend it hopes to continue in the coming months. Within the last year, it has brought in Afua Ahwoi (ex-Chief of Staff at Cleo) as Head of Operations and Strategy, and Modesola Osasomi, (ex-assistant VP – Propositions Manager at Barclays Bank) to head growth.

Product-market fit and fundraising for expansion

Following the progress in the last 12 months, Orda believes it has hit product-market fit, evidenced by the rapid rate of adoption, rising referrals, and increasing ease of onboarding new restaurants. ”We have a huge backlog of restaurants to onboard and we’re confident of reaching 1,000 active restaurants within the next three months. Our vendors love our solution and we do a good job of listening to feedback and incorporating that into the new features we roll out. We do our very best to always center the restaurant’s experience at the heart of our operations,” said Afua Ahwoi, Head of Operations at Orda.

With the recently completed fundraise, Orda has vertical expansion in sight, as it looks to improve its payments, credit and lending solutions, helping customers unlock even more value from their businesses.

“Focusing solely on restaurants has given us deeper insights into how they are run and what their financial behavior is. We believe we can accurately predict when a restaurant needs a cash injection or a small loan and are looking to work with partners who can provide those services,” said Futi.

How beautiful is it to have your cravings or needs served to you at your convenience? Startups have made this possible with several innovative ideas. What business would not make it when they hit the exact need of the general public?

Are these the reasons for the boost? Well, let’s find out. The FoodTech Sector in Nigeria is quite interesting today, having been recognized as the major sector stimulating Nigeria’s economic growth, locally and globally, by the recently released StartupBlink report.

The report revealed that Lagos, the Nigerian city with the most promising startup ecosystem and the reason for the country’s heave, was ranked 24th globally in the FoodTech industry.

“Lagos’ achievement in Foodtech should be celebrated, because Lagos is the only African city to reach the global top 30 for any of the 11 industries.”

Interesting Facts in Nigeria’s Food Industry According to Statistica

• Revenue in the Food market amounts to US$213.50bn in 2022. The market is expected to grow annually by 5.60% (CAGR 2022-2027).
• The market’s largest segment is the segment Confectionery & Snacks with a market volume of US$48.59bn in 2022.
• In relation to total population figures, per person revenues of US$984.80 are generated in 2022.
• In the Food market, volume is expected to amount to 36,550.9mkg by 2027. 
• The average volume per person in the Food market is expected to amount to 181.1kg in 2022.

Older research found that Nigeria’s processed food industry was valued at $20 billion annually in 2012, expected to grow by several tens of billions of dollars by 2050.

Food and Technology 

Several startups have leveraged innovations to create sustainable and inclusive mediums to ensure food processes are seamless. Not limited to these, here are some solutions that have contributed to the sector’s growth and recognition:

• Creating food distribution networks and infrastructure
• Packaging, speed and efficiency 
• Mobile apps for trade and inventory tracking
• Connecting farmers to vendors and even end-users at affordable rates
• Providing finance to farmers and retailers
• Reducing energy consumption 

We cannot leave out the food delivery apps and other logistics without which FoodTech would be limited. There is a chain of people and groups working tirelessly to promote the sector; all cannot be mentioned because the list is long, but some can.

The activities of these startups have attracted Venture Capitalists, organizations and individuals who invest and trust that the sector would thrive beyond its current state. 

1. Orda
2. Jise
3. Jumia Foods
4. Star Kitchens Group
5. OurEdenlife
6. Yaaga
7. MobileCooks
8. FoodBooking
9. GofoodNG
10. Delicioso Mobile Chefs
11. Buyfood Africa
12. Hellofood
13. Chopnownow
14. Agricorp International
15. Releaf
16. Vendease
17. OliliFood
18. ThriveAgric
19. Hello Tractor
20. Groupfarma 

Highlighting a few randomly 

Orda raised $1.1 million in January this year to expand operations. The round included VCs and Angels such as Microtraction, DFS Labs, Oxford Seed Fund, Enza Capital, Agrolay Advisors, Techstars Boulder, Magic Fund, Hustle Fund, Norrsken Foundation, and angel investors like Ire Aderinokun, Jesse Ovia and Ademola Adesina.

Last year, Jise attracted Angel investors such as Backroom Capital; Nigeria, Winston Capital; Ireland, Jonny Enagwolor, Co-Founder Treepz Inc and others. The company raised $100,000 to provide faster and more affordable food delivery service.

Agricorp International 

Utilizing its proprietary technology, Farmbase, to create detailed profiles and financial flow for farmers by registering, aggregating, and paying them for their produce, Agricorp raised $17.5 million in pre-series A funding from Vami Farms, One Capital, AFEX and others.

Releaf

Releaf raised $4.2 million in seed funding and grants to scale food processing solutions last year. This was led by Samurai Incubate Africa, Future Africa and Consonance Investment Managers with participation from Stephen Pagliuca, Chairman of Bain Capital, Justin Kan of Twitch, Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE) and USAID.

Vendease

Backed by Y Combinator, Global Founders Capital, Hustle Fund, Liquid 2 Ventures, Hack VC, and Soma Capital, Vendease connects restaurants and food businesses directly to farmers and manufacturers. The startup recently raised $3.2 million.