$30 M Series A funding raised by Nigerian restaurant management startup Vendease

In order to consolidate its growth in Nigeria and Ghana and support its expansion across the continent, Nigerian startup Vendease has raised US $30 million in an equity and debt funding round. Vendease is a digital platform that enables restaurants in Africa to purchase supplies, access financial services, and power their business operations.

In January 2020, Tunde Kara, Olumide Fayankin, Gatumi Aliyu, and Wale Oyepeju founded Vendease. Vendease offers flexible payment methods to support the expansion of food enterprises while digitising procurement procedures, storage management, and logistics.

The business, which received a US $3.2 million seed round last year and was a member of Y Combinator’s Winter 2021 cohort, has announced it has accepted US $20 million in Series A equity capital together with US $10 million in debt. Together with Partech, VentureSouq, Hustle Fund, Hack VC, GFR Fund, Kube VC, Magic Fund, and Kairos Angels, TLcom Capital co-led the equity round. The local finance market was used to raise the $10 million USD debt round.

Vendease will use the funds to expand into other areas as well as solidify its position in Nigeria and Ghana. The platform has transported over 400,000 metric tonnes of food over the past 12 months, saving its users more than US $2 million in procurement expenditures and more than 10,000 procurement man-hours. Additionally, they were able to save the extra US $485,000.0 in waste from overstocking thanks to its data. Over the previous 12 months, the company’s income increased by 5 times while the number of users on its platform increased by 3 times.

“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.

Andreata Muforo of TLcom and Cyril Collon of Partech will join the board of directors of Vendease after making their investments.

“Restaurants and food businesses play a vital role in communities across the continent and Vendease is on a mission to bring affordability, convenience, and reliability to these businesses, and builds a platform that allows the wider food sector to optimise their operations. We look forward to working alongside the team as they pursue the next phase of growth and unlock significant value in Africa’s fragmented food supply chain,” Muforo said.