Nigerian startup Vendease which makes it easy for restaurants to access food supplies has raised $30 million in Series-A funding.
The equity funding was led by two of Africa’s biggest venture capitalists TLcom and Partech, with participation from VentureSouq, Hustle fund, Hack VC, GFR Fund, Kube VC, Magic Fund and Kairos Angels. The debt funding amounting to $10 was raised from the local finance market.
Vendease which was founded in January 2020 by Tunde Kara, Olumide Fayankin, Gatumi Aliyu, and Wale Oyepeju, uses technology in the food supply chain to help restaurants and other food businesses buy directly from farms and food manufacturers through an online marketplace.
The company negotiates bulk purchases of foods with suppliers and stores in their warehouses to make it easy for deliveries within a day to restaurants.
Vendease has reportedly moved more than 400,000 metric tonnes of food through its platform, helping its users save more than $2,000,000 in procurement costs and more than 10,000 procurement man-hours.
“Our mission is to enable the efficient flow of food across the continent, from point of production to point of consumption. It is more than just placing orders for supplies, we want to transform how the entire sector works and remove the bottlenecks that stunt the growth of restaurants and food businesses. With greater efficiency in the supply chain, we believe we can unlock more growth opportunities across the board, which is why we are excited to have raised this round, led by two of Africa’s biggest VCs, who understand what it takes to power such an ambitious mission,” said Kara, who also serves as the CEO.
Vendease plans to use the newly injected capital to deepen operations and consolidate its presence in its eight markets across Nigeria and Ghana. The company also hopes to move into new markets and build new products to increase customers’ efficiency.
“We’re building technology to efficiently move food from the point of production to the point of consumption,” Kara said, “Everything we build at Vendease — financing, logistics, warehousing, inventory management — is tailored towards ensuring that food flows efficiently from that point of production to the point of consumption.”
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