Chowdeck, a Lagos-born on-demand delivery startup, announced a USD 9 M Series A on Monday a raise that, by the CEOs account, arrived after a bruising stretch.
"I spoke to 200 investors before we got one 'Yes' - At one point, I stopped fundraising altogether and focused on building a profitable company," CEO Femi Aluko told staff in a Slack message he subsequently shared publicly. The round was led by Novastar Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator and a mix of regional and international funds.
That story-rejections, a pivot to profit focus, then investor appetite-is increasingly common among African startups that have had to prove unit economics before capital would follow. Chowdeck says it hit profitability prior to the Series A, a claim both the company and multiple outlets have echoed as part of the explanation for why VCs returned after months of "no." The startup's path shows how traction and sustainable metrics are currently the clearest route to growth capital in the region.
Founded in October 2021 by Aluko alongside Olumide Ojo CTO and Lanre Yusuf COO, Chowdeck has scaled quickly from a neighbourhood food delivery service to a multi-city operator. The startup boasts operations in roughly 11 cities across Nigeria and Ghana and serving more than one million customers through a network of thousands of riders. That footprint, and reported average delivery times under 30 minutes in dense areas, are central to the startup's pitch to investors: a logistics stack tuned for speed in African urban centres.
Chowdeck's immediate focus after the round is expansion of "quick commerce" - faster grocery and neighborhood market deliveries - largely by building a network of fulfilment hubs or dark stores.
