Vendease
“Can a B2B food procurement marketplace become the embedded financial and operating system for African restaurants?”
Founded2020
HQLagos, Nigeria
FoundersTunde Kara, Olumide Fayankin, Gatumi Aliyu, Wale Oyepeju
Total raised~$33.2M+ (disclosed)
Latest roundSeries A, 2022
IndustryVertical SaaS / Restaurants
The story
Vendease launched in 2020 as a B2B food procurement marketplace connecting African restaurants directly to farms and manufacturers. It quickly pivoted from pure middleman to a stocking/aggregator model and layered embedded financial services — most notably a Buy Now Pay Later product — on top of supply. After macro pressure on Nigerian logistics economics, Vendease restructured in 2024-2025: it cut 44% of staff and repositioned as a software-first operating system for restaurants (POS, Restaurant Manager, marketplace, wallets) with BNPL as the core financial product.
Product timeline
2020
Founded in Nigeria as a B2B food procurement marketplace connecting restaurants to suppliers· launch
2021
Backed by Y Combinator (W21 batch); raised $3.2M seed· funding
2022
Raised $30M Series A (equity + debt) to expand financial services and operations across Nigeria and Ghana· funding
2024
Launched/scaled Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) product for restaurants and food businesses· lending
2024
Launched Restaurant Manager (back-office OS) and Point of Sale hardware/software for restaurants· pivot
2025
Restructured business — cut ~44% of workforce, shifted from logistics-heavy to software-first model (BNPL + Restaurant OS)· pivot
The stack
2 layers disclosed in Vendease’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Vendease POS (self-operated)Vendease Wallet (self-operated)
Lending
in the full report
Accounting gap: significant
2 more providers across 1 layer, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.