Egyptian startup OneOrder, a fintech-enabled restaurant management platform providing food supplies to hotels, restaurants and cafes, has announced the close of a US$3 million seed round to help it scale various aspects of its operations.
Founded by leading Egyptian restaurateur Tamer Amer – the founder of Fuego Sushi and Longhorn Texas BBQ, two of Egypt’s most successful restaurant chains – OneOrder aims to tackle Egypt’s restaurant industry’s main supply chain issues – pricing, quality and timing.
The startup’s platform allows Egyptian restaurants to buy all their needs from one application. There are similar restaurant supply chain inefficiencies in other countries in MENA and OneOrder aspires to, over time, expand its proposition geographically across the region.
Led by Nclude, the startup’s US$3 million seed round also sees follow-on investment from leading MENA early-stage VC A15. New to the round is Delivery Hero Ventures, a fund backed by global food delivery giant Delivery Hero, whose managing partner Brendon Blacker joins the OneOrder board. The announcement brings the company’s total investment to US$10.5 million, following an initial US$1 million pre-seed investment, led by A15, and US$6.5 million in working capital financing from multiple local NBFIs.
OneOrder will use the latest capital injection to bolster its in-house operations and tech talent, scale its sales force to build its market share, and invest heavily in its proprietary technology. In addition, the technology-powered food and hospitality platform will deploy additional capital into scaling its offline presence, and expand its warehouse footprint across Egypt and the MENA region.
“As a restauranteur myself, I have witnessed first hand the avoidable overheads and hassles HoReCa businesses go through in serving their customers. We are delighted by the level of adoption and growth we have recorded over the past year which is testament to the fact that we are addressing a huge unmet demand in our region,” Amer said.
“Asides improving efficiency, we are reducing costs and impacting restaurants’ bottom lines – saving them time through operational efficiency and money through improved purchasing power and economies of scale. Joined by prominent global investors with deep knowledge and extensive expertise in our sector, we look forward to our next phase of rapid growth.”
Basil Moftah, managing partner at Nclude, said his company had been impressed by OneOrder’s “remarkable progress”.
“The product-market fit of the OneOder solution is very impressive, along with the positive impact it is delivering to all stakeholders in the value chain. Through the use of technology and alternative data, OneOrder’s embedded financing will help underserved clients who are unable to secure traditional financing. This aligns perfectly with our investing philosophy and we are glad to be embarking on this journey with the team,” he said.
