US$741,804,000+
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Chowdeck, one of Africa’s fastest-rising delivery startups, has acquired Mira, a startup offering point-of-sale and business management software for food and hospitality businesses. The terms of the deal are undisclosed.
It’s a move that signals Chowdeck’s intention to be not only a delivery app but a robust tech infrastructure partner for Africa’s fragmented restaurant and hospitality sector.
Launched in Nigeria in late 2021, Chowdeck built its reputation on speed, enabling meals, groceries, and essentials to reach customers in under 30 minutes across 11 cities where it’s gained over 1.5 million users and deployed more than 20,000 riders.
However, like delivery startups globally, the Y Combinator-backed startup is not immune to the harsh realities of thin logistics margins and fleeting user growth. The Mira acquisition hints at a deeper strategy to own the tools restaurants use behind the scenes, not just the last mile to customers’ doors.
Mira, founded in 2022 by ex-Flutterwave exec Ted Oladele, addresses Africa’s hospitality tech gap, providing restaurants with all-in-one software to manage sales, inventory, kitchen operations, and customer engagement.
Used by over 500 businesses, its platform has been praised for blending empathy for Africa’s operational chaos — unreliable supply chains, stockouts, and infrastructure gaps — with modern software design.
In a region where poor inventory management routinely eats into restaurant profits, Mira’s tools promise to help brands move from inventory headaches to operational clarity.
By acquiring Mira, Chowdeck joins a broader global playbook where delivery companies seek to entrench themselves beyond transactional deliveries.
The deal is part of a growing trend where delivery platforms evolve beyond customer ordering and fulfillment. Similar moves have been seen globally, from DoorDash’s acquisition of Bbot to Delivery Hero’s stake in TabSquare, as the biggest players seek to deepen relationships with restaurants by embedding themselves in every corner of the operational workflow.
By acquiring Mira, Chowdeck is betting it can do the same in African markets, making itself harder to displace, increasing the lifetime value of merchant relationships, and extracting new revenue streams from SaaS and payments.
The shared aim is to become the operating system for restaurants, not just the courier. This integration helps lock in partners, boost margins, and reduce reliance on ever-costlier delivery logistics.
For Chowdeck, the Mira deal also reflects a bet on where growth lies. While consumers expect faster delivery and slicker apps, food businesses are crying out for smarter operational support, especially as competition and consumer demands rise.
Combining delivery speed with operational intelligence could give Chowdeck a competitive edge as it expands beyond Nigeria to markets like Ghana and potentially other major African cities.
As Femi Aluko, CEO and co‑founder of Chowdeck, puts it, Mira brings “deep experience in solving operational challenges” for food businesses. Meanwhile, the deal brings Mira’s CEO, Oladele, into Chowdeck as head of product; a sign that the acquisition is as much about talent as tech.
Chowdeck now looks to position itself as the indispensable partner for African restaurants trying to scale amid local complexities. The big question now is whether this delivery-cum-SaaS strategy can deliver the notoriously elusive profitability in a sector infamous for burning cash at the altar of convenience.