Chowdeck “looking at” South Africa and Kenya for possible expansion

Chowdeck, a Nigerian YC-backed food delivery platform, could consider expanding to South Africa, Kenya, and Ivory Coast.

“We are still figuring things out, but we are looking at these countries because they have a mature market. Especially South Africa,” Kennedy Offor, sales lead at Chowdeck, said on the sidelines of Moonshot by TechCabal on Thursday.

The food delivery markets in South Africa, Kenya, and Côte d’Ivoire are bustling with players. In South Africa, there is Mr D Food, a Takealot Group subsidiary, Uber Eats, Zulzi, and others. In Kenya, Chowdeck will compete with Glovo and Bolt Food. Glovo and Uber Eats are also in Côte d’Ivoire.

Chowdeck, which recently celebrated reaching one million registered users, makes 40,000 deliveries daily. However, 70% of them come from Lagos State.

While the company has integrated other verticals like grocery delivery, medicine shopping, advertising, and last-mile logistics to expand its offerings on its app, expanding to other countries with a similar consumer dynamic like Lagos provides growth opportunities.

Until the international expansion, Chowdeck will continue working to increase the number of restaurants in its network by adding new ones and supporting existing partners to open outlets in new locations.

“By opening outlets closer to places where the data shows frequent orders come, we are ensuring that food gets to people faster and at a more affordable rate,” Offor said. “We have helped smaller businesses [in Lagos] open such new outlets.”

For restaurant aggregators like Chowdeck to scale orders, restaurants with high patronage must be well-distributed. So the company has also doubled down on partnerships with quick-service restaurant chains. In August 2024, it signed an exclusive partnership with Chicken Republic, which has nearly 100 outlets in the country. The company recently worked with Chicken Republic to launch a new food product. Chowdeck is also looking to support its expansion into new states.

“We figure out ways to help them grow as much as we can, whether it’s a quick delivery, whether it’s the amount of data we’re able to give them in terms of where orders are coming and whatnot,” he said.

Offor believes a symbiotic relationship with these restaurants is a sure path for the company’s growth. This seems like an operating philosophy that will fit right in wherever their expansion takes them.