“Can a B2B food procurement marketplace become the embedded financial and operating system for African restaurants?”
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.
Vendease processes payments through Vendease POS (self-operated) and Vendease Wallet (self-operated).
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 2 layers in Vendease's stack: Payments / PSP (Vendease POS (self-operated) and Vendease Wallet (self-operated)); Lending (Vendease Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) for restaurants and food businesses and Financing available on POS/hardware bundles).
Vendease was founded by Tunde Kara, Olumide Fayankin, Gatumi Aliyu and Wale Oyepeju and is founded in 2020, headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria.
Vendease has raised ~$33.2M+ (disclosed) in total (latest round: Series A, 2022).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Vendease and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.