Foodsasa defies virus odds to make money

Dar es Salaam. Covid-19 may have ravaged economies across the globe, but for some entrepreneurs, it turned to be a blessing in disguise.

Foodsasa, a food delivery platform, which connects restaurants and customers, used its online platforms to positively generate income.

The platform, which was co-founded by Hertha Mkumbo, Peter Shayo, George Mhamiji and Albany James, saw an almost 50 percent increase in their customer database.

Team members say during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, they took advantage of their online skills to increase their customers’ base from 24 to 50 daily.

According to Mr James, they established the Foodsasa platform in 2019, but could not connect to customers like in 2020.

However, he admits that they were unable to handle the rising number of their customers on time.

“Normally, when a client orders food, it reaches him or her within an hour. However, after roping in more clients, it was difficult to provide service on time, so some of them started complaining,” he said.

Mr James added that every month they grow their client’s base by 25 per cent.

He said so far their capital has reached $200,000 (about Sh465 million), which they plan to invest more in service delivery.

“We plan to employ a number riders by from the current 24 and purchase more motorcycles to improve the delivery of our services,” he said.

He disclosed that they were also planning to open branches in the Tanzanian capital of Dodoma and Arusha.

According to him, they decided to come up with Foodsasa platform to help restaurants, fast foods shops and ordinary food vendors to get new customers.

“We enjoy connecting vendors to their customers to improve their sales targets,” he said, adding: “Our delivery service cuts across food, beverages, and groceries.”

Foodsasa head of customer service customer Ms Mkumbo said they work as a bridge between vendors and customers, utilising an innovative digital platform that works as a single point of contact for time-strapped consumers across Africa.

“Since January to date the number of clients have increased to 15,000 in Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam. We also work with our unique selling point whereby 195 are food vendors,” she said.

Ms Mkumbo added that they established the platform to formalize food vendors business, equip them with financial capacity and help access to Foodsasa platform to increase sales by adding online channels and supporting in branding and packaging to add value.

She said they help customers to discover new ways through Food and support local vendors in getting new customers.

“We are building a more inclusive and accessible mobile commerce technology ecosystem for the country and Africa in general.

In Africa, food merchants are fast losing sales with lesser and lesser walk-in customers who are mostly busy due to growing economic activities and they need to catch users digitally.

However, they lack the financial means and technical know-how to go digital.

Soul Treat Bakery co- founder Janeth Mabada said tried to use the Foodsasa platform before, but there were challenges on delivery and few customers.

Mabada said since they started using Foodsasa platform the number of customers have increased tremendously.