By Ashemiriogwa Emmanuel
One of Africa’s leading agrifood-tech startups digitising its food supply chain, Vendease, has raised $3.2 million in a seed round to expand its operations on the continent.
The funding round was led by Global Founders Capital, a backer of one of Africa’s very first unicorns, Jumia, with participation from existing investors such as Paga’s Tayo Oviosu, Remita’s John Obaro, and Magic fund. At the same time, new angel investors who participated were Y Combinator, Hustle Fund, Liquid 2 Ventures, Hack VC, and Soma Capital.
The nine-month-old, Nigerian-based startup plans to use the fresh funding to increase its capacity in digitising procurement processes, storage operations, and logistics to bridge the gap of technology in Africa’s food supply chain, which has posed many problems.
The implementation of further building its technology will also provide a flexible payment system that will accelerate the growth of food businesses across the continent.
Speaking on the fresh investment, Vandease CEO, Mr Tunde Kara, said, “The rising food inflation coupled with effects of COVID-19 across Africa has positioned Vendease to scale up food systems by digitising end-to-end processes from farm to table.
“We currently operate out of Lagos, Ibadan and Abuja, but this funding will act as a buoy for us, as we scale our solution to other cities across the continent.”
While commending the team, the Managing Partner at Global Founders Capital of the United States of America, Mr Don Stalter, expressed optimism on utilising the investment.
He said, “We’ve seen a great deal of talent in the market – and Tunde and the Vendease team are best in class both in Europe, The Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and globally. Their laser focus and rapid growth are unprecedented, and there’s a massive opportunity ahead.”
Vandease was founded in January 2020 by Mr Kara, Mr Olumide Fayankin, Mr Gatumi Aliyu and Mr Wale Oyepeju and backed by YCombinator.
The firm operates an online marketplace, both mobile and web apps that allows restaurants and other food businesses to buy directly from farms and food manufacturers, manage inventory, track expenses and gain access to credit facilities.
The company said it delivered about 100,000 metric tons of food and has helped restaurants save about 5,000 person-hours in the last nine months, making the firm record a $12.9 million transaction volume in September 2021.
