Vendease, an online marketplace that allows restaurants and other food businesses to buy supplies from manufacturers and farms, has raised a $3.2 million seed round led by Global Founders Capital. The fundraising is coming seven months after Vendease featured in Y Combinator’s 2021 winter batch.
The investment round was joined by Y Combinator, Hustle Fund, Liquid 2 Ventures, Hack VC and Soma Capital including individual local investors and early backers such as Paga CEO Tayo Oviosu, Remita CEO John Obaro and Magic Fund.
Founded in January 2020, by Tunde Kara, Olumide Fayankin, Gatumi Aliyu, and Wale Oyepeju, Vendease is tackling the challenges and inefficiencies in Africa’s highly fragmented food sector, starting with Nigeria. It is doing by serving as a marketplace that allows restaurants in Africa, order supplies directly from farms and food manufacturers. It regards itself as the Amazon for food businesses.
According to TechCrunch, the YC-backed company hit an annualized transaction volume of $12.9 million and $1.2 million in annual recurring revenue last month.
On what the startup will use the funding for, co-founder and CEO of Vendease, Tunde Kara says the company will use the funding to expand into other cities and countries before the end of Q1 next year. In addition, the funding allows Vendease to continue to build out its technology stack, secure partnerships with some payment platforms and banks to deepen its financial products, especially buy now, pay later.
In a statement, the managing partner at Global Founders Capital said, “As a backer of one of Africa’s very first unicorns, Jumia, we’ve seen a great deal of talent in the market – and Tunde & the Vendease team are best in class both in EMEA and globally. Their laser focus and rapid growth are unprecedented, and there’s a massive opportunity ahead.”
