Technology has opened up new possibilities, one of which is the ability for individuals to order meals and have them delivered directly to them at home or at work.
During the Covid lockdown, this became highly popular, and the procedure improved as Apps were introduced, an example of such is Jumia Food.
But most of these Apps are for ordering and hardly for inventory and management. Africa, like most other technologies, is lagging behind in the food-tech sector, despite its efforts.
A few entrepreneurs, on the other hand, are penetrating the market and establishing themselves as major players as it evolves. Orda, a Nigerian company, is one such example.
Recently, Orda raised a $1.1 million pre-seed round to scale its software across Africa. The round was led by pan-African investor LoftyInc Capital.
Other investors who participated are Techstars Boulder, Magic Fund, Hustle Fund, Norrsken Foundation, Microtraction, DFS Labs, Oxford Seed Fund, Enza Capital, Agrolay Advisors, and angel investors such as Buycoins’ Ire Aderinokun, Jesse Ovia, and Ademola Adesina.
This section of Africa’s food business is Orda’s targeted market. Orda’s cloud-based software aims to eliminate the need for these enterprises to manage their operations manually, that is pen and paperwork.
Guy Futi, co-founder and CEO of Orda, stated that there are two types of restaurants, with the bulk of Orda’s concentration being on local and small eateries, for example.
He went on to say that these are the eateries that still do balancing manually and spend three to four hours doing it.
They don’t have immediate access to software that does analytics and inventory control. As a result, the company came up with the idea to create a cloud-based restaurant software that was specifically designed for Africa’s large chefs and restaurant businesses.
Restaurants who utilize the Orda management system can also access the dashboard that enables them to take and process orders from meal delivery services vendors such as Jumia Food, Glovo, and Bolt Food, as well as in-store, online, and through social media platforms such as WhatsApp.
No other startup in Orda’s industry, according to the firm, has made such connections. These connections, which include an ePos solution that allows restaurants to operate in remote places with limited or no internet access, give Orda a competitive advantage, according to Futi.
Orda takes 2,500 ($5) to 30,000 ($50) from restaurants each month to use its software. Orda will expand its financial products, particularly in loans, and move into restaurant payment processing, the CEO stated, after closing its pre-seed investment and moving toward securing a seed round.
Techbuild’s Take
Food technology attracts the least amount of attention. During the lockout, the food delivery element gained a lot of attention, but when it comes to administration and inventories, there aren’t many businesses.
Large restaurants that could afford a point of sale system to keep track of sales were, in fact, the exception.
It should be noted that the country has a higher number of tiny eateries, commonly referred to as “Bukka,” which rely on manual inventory and offline management, which might take time to complete. Some businesses may opt for no inventory and operate on a day-to-day basis.
For small eateries in the country and Africa as a whole, there are very few technologies such as Orda, TouchBistro, IT Chef, and a few others who can do proper, rapid, and accurate inventory and generate receipt.
With this seed, Orda is able to solve about half of the challenges that small eateries face in determining their revenues.
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