Nigerian profitable food delivery Chowdeck lands $9M from Novastar, Y Combinator

Chowdeck, a pioneering food delivery startup based in Lagos, has successfully secured $9 million in Series A funding. This significant investment, led by Novastar Ventures with participation from prominent investors including Y Combinator, AAIC Investment, Rebel Fund, GFR Fund, Kaleo, and HoaQ, will fuel Chowdeck’s ambitious expansion plans, notably its foray into quick commerce and broader city coverage across Nigeria and Ghana.

The company has distinguished itself by maintaining profitability within the notoriously challenging and low-margin food delivery market. Investors are backing Chowdeck’s unique ability to combine deep local market expertise with strong execution, aiming to transform the difficult sector into a profitable super app for food, groceries, and essential goods.

“We’re thrilled about this round as it brings us closer to our vision of becoming Africa’s number one super app,” stated Femi Aluko, CEO and co-founder of Chowdeck. “This funding will supercharge our growth plans, enabling us to expand into more cities, reduce delivery times, scale our grocery footprint, and attract the best talent to drive innovation and customer satisfaction.”

Founded in October 2021 by Aluko, Olumide Ojo, and Lanre Yusuf, Chowdeck has rapidly established a strong presence, now operating in 11 cities across Nigeria and Ghana. The platform serves 1.5 million customers through a network of over 20,000 riders, achieving an average delivery time of 30 minutes per order. In densely populated areas, more than half of deliveries are completed by bicycle, highlighting an efficient and localized approach.

While many global players have scaled back or exited African operations, Chowdeck has embraced the intricacies of local markets, focusing on delivering local meals, a more complex operational challenge, to build robust customer trust.

The value of meals delivered through Chowdeck saw a remarkable growth of over sixfold in 2024 compared to the previous year, with the company surpassing its 2024 total volume before July of the current year.

The new capital will be instrumental in rolling out Chowdeck’s quick commerce strategy, which involves ultra-fast delivery powered by a network of dark stores and hyperlocal logistics hubs. The company intends to open 40 dark stores by the end of 2025 and scale to 500 by the end of 2026, launching two to three new stores weekly. This expansion follows their successful $2.5 million seed round raised last year.

The food delivery sector, globally, is highly competitive, with companies like DoorDash demonstrating the potential for success when executed effectively. Quick commerce, however, has often proven to be a capital-intensive venture, marked by significant investments and subsequent market retreats or consolidations by companies like Gorillas and Getir in Europe, and varying degrees of success for platforms like Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy in India.

Chowdeck’s strategic advantage lies in its consistent profitability, achieved even before this funding round. Aluko emphasizes the company’s disciplined approach, ensuring that entry into new cities or verticals is accompanied by a clear plan to achieve break-even within weeks.

An example of this strategy is Chowdeck’s recent expansion into Ghana in May, where within three months, it was handling 1,000 daily orders without paid advertising. This growth was driven by pent-up demand for a service that efficiently delivers both local favorites and international cuisines. The company aims to quintuple this volume to 5,000 daily orders by the end of September 2025.

Complementing its delivery operations, Chowdeck acquired Mira, a point-of-sale provider for African food and hospitality businesses, in June. Mira’s real-time inventory and order management tools will be integrated to optimize Chowdeck’s operations, positioning the company as a comprehensive vertical SaaS-plus-logistics provider for restaurants.

Chowdeck’s successful funding round is a significant boost for local players in Africa’s logistics sector, especially following Jumia’s exit from food delivery and the withdrawal of some foreign competitors like Glovo and Bolt Food from certain African markets, including Nigeria and Ghana. The company is poised to capitalize on this evolving landscape, alongside other regional super apps like Gozem, Yassir, and MNT-Halan.

“The market is still very early,” Aluko remarked. “Customer behavior is shifting online for the first time. A whole generation is growing up ordering food without ever having walked into some of the restaurants or markets on our platform.”

Brian Waswani Odhiambo, Partner at Novastar Ventures, expressed confidence in Chowdeck’s approach: “Chowdeck is building the future of logistics for African cities. With deep local insight, a sustainability-first approach, and impressive execution, it is redefining last-mile delivery on the continent.”