Orda, a foodtech startup based in Nigeria, has completed its seed funding round. The startup, which provides digital operating systems for restaurants, has raised $3.4 million from series of investors.
The seed funding round had leading participations from New York-based Fintech Collective and emerging market investor Quona Capital. Investments also poured in from existing investors like LoftyInc Capital, Enza Capital, and the Norrsken Foundation, as well as fresh investment firms like Outside VC, Far Out Ventures, and a number of other investors.
Speaking of Orda’s plans for the funds, the startup claims it will use the proceed from the investment round to help restaurants in Africa maximize their operations and expand their distribution. The startup will also improve on some of its products, including its loan, credit, and payment options. Orda also added that it will pursue its plan for an expansion into South Africa, and other African countries.
Orda was founded in 2020 by Guy Futi, Fikayo Akinwale, Mark Edomwande, Kunle Ogungbamila and Namir El-Khouri. The startup currently operates in Kenya and Nigeria, and provides cloud-based operating system to small and medium-sized restaurants across Nigeria and Kenya. As part of its cloud-based systems, Orda offers kitchen display systems, order and inventory management, integration with the top food aggregators, accounting software, microsites, and mobile apps, to African restaurants.
“We take an interesting approach to software and helping restaurant owners set up. Our software digitizes the process of those who write things in hand and helps them figure out their inventory management and recipe yields,” CEO, Futi said.
Futi added that the startup has aggregated 600 restaurants, with hundred in the pipeline – waiting to be onboarded. The startup is also planning to serve 1,000 restaurants by the end of Q1 of 2023.
“We have a huge backlog of restaurants to onboard, and we’re confident of reaching 1,000 active restaurants within the next three months. Our vendors love our solution, and we do a good job of listening to feedback and incorporating that into the new features we roll out. We do our very best to always centre the restaurant’s experience at the heart of our operations,” said Afua Ahwoi, Orda’s Head of Operations, added.
Speaking in the funding, Kofoworola Agbaje, senior investment associate at Quona Capital, said:
“When a restaurant owner moves from pen and paper to a fully automated digital platform, it’s incredibly empowering. Suddenly they have insights available to them that can improve their productivity and margins, enabling them to grow their businesses. A solution like Orda can have an outsized impact on small and medium-sized restaurants and the livelihoods of those who operate them.”
Also commenting on the fundraise, Samatha Wulfson, an investor at FinTech Collective, said,
“Digitising the long tail of restaurants across the continent presents an opportunity to tap into Africa’s largest consumer spend category. Not only does Orda’s omnichannel solution produce immediate efficiency gains for restaurants, but a roadmap encompassing embedded payments and credit also creates a path to tap into the flow of funds throughout an enormous food and beverage industry.”
According to the CEO, Orda has quintupled the number of orders it processed in January, and now process up to 50,000 orders weekly, with its gross merchandise value (GMV) increasing 30% month-on-month.