MyFoodness, a mobile commerce platform focused on increasing earning opportunities for food merchants and providing convenience for consumers by linking both parties, has entered the Tanzanian market with a launch in Dar es Salaam.
Launched early 2018, MyFoodness operates via a smartphone application available for both android and iPhone users who can order a meal from any of the restaurants featured on the platform. The options available to consumers is to either have the food delivered or picked up at the restaurant.
“Our App enables restaurant owners to have their own mobile commerce stores within our platform, without having to pay exorbitant amounts in software development and technical support services,” founder and CEO Boi Kgathi Rasmussen said at the launch. “Furthermore, and most importantly, MyFoodness is an additional sales channel which brings in new customers and therefore; extra sales.”
The Botswana-based food delivery startup has already signed up 60 merchants in Tanzania, it said, while also announcing a name rebranding to Yamee. The company plans to extend its presence to the Democratic Republic of Congo as well, it said.
“We are excited about our launch and all the recognition we have received in our two years of existence,” Rasmussen said. “We directly impact the lives of African food merchants, local logistics companies and riders, by increasing their earning opportunities.”
MyFoodness (now Yamee) was introduced after months of research and looking closely at the food ordering and delivery space in Botswana, its many challenges and how these challenges can be transformed into a pot of gold, Rasmussen told Botswana Guardian shortly after its launch two years ago. Since then, the startup has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Start Capital Partners, a Dutch VC firm, Seedstars, various European angel investors, and South African angel investor DJ Black Coffee.
The expansion into Tanzania comes at a time when online food delivery is reshaping the food and beverage space, with e-commerce and last-mile delivery steadily becoming one of the largest and fastest-growing trends in the industry.
Revenue in the global online food delivery segment is projected to hit $18.9 billion in 2020, per Statista. Over the next four years, the industry revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2020–2024) of 8.2 percent, resulting in a market volume of $25.95 billion by 2024.
