Chowdeck, Nigeria’s on-demand delivery service, has secured $2.5 million in seed funding to optimize its operations and support expansion into more cities across the country.
Chowdeck serves more than 500,000 users and more than 3,000 riders across 8 Nigerian cities (Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, Port-Harcourt, Ilorin, Benin City, Abeokuta and Asaba). The firm will use this new funding to double down on its market leadership in these cities and further expand into new ones.
The seed funding round included investment from YCombinator, Goodwater Capital, FounderX Ventures, Hoaq Fund, Levare Ventures, True Culture Funds and Haleakala Ventures.
Simon Borrero and Juan Pablo Ortega (co-founders of Rappi – Latin America’s online delivery platform), Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi (co-founders of Paystack), Sudeep Ramani (Sportybet), Ayo Arikawe (Thrive Agric) and Karthik Ramakrishnan (Amazon) also participated as angels.
According to Femi Aluko, CEO and co-founder of Chowdeck, “We are pleased with the success we have achieved to date and excited to have raised these funds that will enable us to replicate that success in more parts of Nigeria, and add value to our customers, vendors, and riders in as many ways as we can.”
Launched in October 2021 after the COVID-19 lockdown in Lagos, Chowdeck delivers food in 30 minutes, on average and has built an effective ordering and logistics operation that both restaurant customers and food vendors can leverage. Some of the restaurants using Chowdeck include Chicken Republic, Burger King, Bukka Hut and more. Other partnerships include Shoprite, KFC, among others.
“Chowdeck has quickly become a household name across Nigeria, priding itself on very high standards of execution. They are addressing a large and complicated problem, especially in Africa, delivering goods at record speed. I am excited that they have proven that the opportunity is there beyond restaurants and supermarkets,” concluded June Angelides, Partner at Levare Ventures.