Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for May 11, #230

Chowdeck, a Lagos-based food delivery startup that has stayed profitable in a notoriously tough and low-margin market, has raised $9 million in Series A funding to launch a quick commerce strategy and expand into more cities in Nigeria and Ghana.

The equity round was led by Novastar Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator, AAIC Investment, Rebel Fund, GFR Fund, Kaleo, HoaQ, and others. The investors are betting on the team’s ability to pair local market expertise with execution and turn a notoriously difficult sector into a profitable super app for food, groceries and essentials.

“We’re thrilled about this round as it brings us closer to our vision of becoming Africa’s number one super app,” CEO and co-founder Femi Aluko said. “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 now operates in 11 cities across Nigeria and Ghana, serving 1.5 million customers with a network of more than 20,000 riders. Its logistics system averages 30 minutes per order, and in dense areas, more than half of deliveries arrive by bicycle.

While prominent players have exited or scaled back their African operations, Chowdeck has leaned into the complexity of local markets—delivering local meals, an operationally harder challenge—to build trust with customers.

In 2024, the value of meals delivered through Chowdeck grew more than sixfold from the previous year. This year, the company says it passed its 2024 total before mid-year.

The new funding will help Chowdeck roll out quick commerce, ultra-fast delivery backed by a network of dark stores and hyperlocal logistics hubs. The company plans to open 40 dark stores by the end of this year and 500 by the end of 2026, with two to three new stores launching each week. Chowdeck raised a $2.5 million seed round last year.

Techcrunch event

San Francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025

Image Credits:Chowdeck

Food delivery is a crowded business globally, but when done well, it has led to some other big companies like DoorDash.

Quick commerce, on the other hand, has been a capital-intensive gamble in most markets. In Europe, Gorillas and Getir burned through hundreds of millions of dollars before retreating or consolidating. In India, platforms like Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy have had varying levels of success with the model when it comes to profitability.

Chowdeck has been profitable since before this raise and Aluko says the company doesn’t enter cities or verticals without planning to break even within a couple of weeks.

For instance, the food delivery platform entered neighbouring Ghana this May. Within three months, it was handling 1,000 daily orders without paid advertising, which, according to Aluko, came from pent-up demand for a service that delivers local favorites alongside international cuisines. The company aims to quintuple that volume to 5,000 daily orders by the end of September 2025.

Aluko says Chowdeck plans to apply the same playbook to dark stores, which will complement its restaurant and grocery delivery operations.

Another vertical complementing these operations will be software. This June, the YC-backed startup acquired Mira, a point-of-sale provider for African food and hospitality businesses. Mira’s tools manage inventory and orders in real time; now, it will help Chowdeck optimize its operations, positioning the company as a vertical SaaS-plus-logistics provider for restaurants.

Chowdeck’s raise is a win for local players in the sector, after Jumia’s exit left market share to foreign brands such as Glovo, Bolt Food, and Yango. Yet, some of these companies have also withdrawn from certain markets, including Nigeria and Ghana, which Chowdeck is now targeting aggressively.

Super apps such as Gozem, YC-backed Yassir, and MNT-Halan are other local companies offering food delivery services in other African markets.

“The market is still very early,” Aluko said. “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.”

For lead investor Novastar Ventures, the bet is on execution and local insight. “Chowdeck is building the future of logistics for African cities,” said partner Brian Waswani Odhiambo. “With deep local insight, a sustainability-first approach, and impressive execution, it is redefining last-mile delivery on the continent.”