Three years ago, Hellofood went live in Africa with a 1970s-style beige and burgundy website, they received two orders that day from external customers in Lagos ,that, was the start of an incredible journey to, according to the company, revolutionize how people eat in Africa.
The burgundy website, as they called it, took an entire minute to load. It was the first online food portal for Africa from which over 125,000 customers now order for food every 6 seconds during lunch hour as Hellofood team works hard to deliver to their homes or office where they can pay on delivery!
“It was just a basic website, ”Joe Falter, CEO and founder Hellofood said. “Far from what it looks like now.”
Today, as Hellofood celebrates its 3rd anniversary in Africa, it has grown 20 percent per month in the last 36 months, tripled in size in the last 12 months and now employs over 500 people in 11 challenging markets 50 percent of who are women and to this day, its delivery riders have travelled the equivalent of one hundred times around the earth to make deliveries. Six of its former employees have also moved on to start own technological companies.
Joe Falter, Founder and CEO, said: “I’m incredibly proud of what our team has achieved – building this business from nothing to dominate 11 African markets, and change the way that hundreds of thousands of people order food on a daily basis. However, we’ve only scratched the surface, the potential for this business model is stratospheric and right now more than ever we are buzzing about the opportunity to reach more customers and ensure a stress free ordering experience.”
While the number of smartphone users across Africa continues to grow, Hellofood has moved to leverage on the market with mobile applications for different operating systems to help customers shop from anywhere in Africa besides maximising orders for their over 3,500 partners.
As part of its 3rd anniversary celebrations, Hellofood has announced up-to 40% discount on foods ordered on the 27th of this month to coincide with Black Friday. The sale is expected to record the highest ever levels of food ordering in Africa.
“We thank our customers for their support throughout the years and we are glad to reward them with amazing discounts on the 27th of this month. They had better be online to catch the deals, “- Joe.
Staff Writer
