Orda, a startup in restaurant management in Nigeria, raises $3.4 million in an early round.

Orda, a Nigerian company that develops cloud operating systems for restaurants, has raised US$3.4 million in a seed round to further digitalize the food industry on the continent.

Guy Futi, Fikayo Akinwale, Mark Edomwande, Kunle Ogungbamila, and Namir El-Khouri founded Orda in 2020 with the goal of assisting small-scale African restaurants in growing sustainably.

After raising a pre-seed round of US$1.1 million in January, the firm has expanded its customer base to more than 600 restaurants in Nigeria and Kenya. It is currently processing more than 500% more weekly orders for its clients.

Orda’s US$3.4 million seed round was co-led by Quona Capital and FinTech Collective, and also saw participation from institutional investors including Far Out Ventures and Outside VC, angels Doneci Kone and Julian Shapiro, and follow-on investment from Norrsken Foundation, LoftyInc Capital and Enza Capital.

“Orda has concentrated on developing solutions for small and medium-sized restaurants from the company’s inception. The strength of Orda’s financial solutions and software helps propel these companies’ businesses despite their low profit margins. Our objective is to offer comprehensive solutions that enable customers to streamline their business processes and increase their prosperity, according to Futi.

It is “very empowering,” according to Kofoworola Agbaje, senior investment associate at Quona Capital, when a restaurant owner switches from pen and paper to a completely automated digital platform.

“All of a sudden, they have access to insights that can boost their output and profit margins, allowing them to expand their enterprises. We at Quona are thrilled to help Orda in this vital effort since a solution like Orda has the potential to have a significant influence on small and medium-sized restaurants and the livelihoods of individuals who run them, the spokesperson said.

According to Samantha Wulfson of FinTech Collective, digitizing the long tail of eateries across Africa offered a chance to capitalize on the continent’s largest consumer spending segment.

“Orda’s omnichannel solution not only boosts restaurant efficiency right away, but a roadmap covering embedded payments and credit also forges a way to tap into the flow of funds throughout a massive food and beverage business,” the spokesperson added.

Orda thinks that after making progress over the last 12 months, it has achieved product-market fit, as seen by the high rate of adoption, increased referrals, and improving ease of onboarding new restaurants.

We have a sizable backlog of eateries to onboard, but we’re optimistic that we can reach 1,000 operational eateries in the following three months. We do a good job of listening to feedback and incorporating it into the new features we release, which is why our vendors adore our solution. Afua Ahwoi, head of operations at Orda, stated, “We always try our best to center the restaurant experience at the heart of our operations.

With the recently completed fundraise, Orda has vertical expansion in sight, as it looks to improve its payments, credit and lending solutions, helping customers unlock even more value from their businesses.