HelloFood, an online portal that allows customers to order food and have it delivered, recently celebrated its third anniversary.

HelloFood began as a 1970s-style website in November 2012. It was the first online food portal in Africa and took around one minute to load. The company only received two orders on their first day, but it was the start of an incredible journey to revolutionize how people eat in Africa, according to It News Africa.

HelloFood provides food from a listing of more than 270 restaurants. More than 125,000 customers order food every six seconds during the lunchtime hours on the site. The company then delivers food to homes and offices where customers can pay upon delivery.

Joe Falter, CEO and Founder of HelloFood, said, “It was just a basic website [when it started]. Far from what it looks like now.”

HelloFood has grown 20 percent each month over the last 36 months. It has tripled in size in the last 12 months and now has 500 employees, 50 percent of whom are women. It News Africa reports the delivery riders have traveled the equivalent of 100 times around the Earth.

HelloFood has also created mobile shopping apps, allowing customers to keep up with changing trends and technologies.

“I’m incredibly proud of what our team has achieved — building this business from nothing to dominate 11 African markets, and change the way that hundreds of thousands of people order food on a daily basis,” Falter said. “However, we’ve only scratched the surface, the potential for this business model is stratospheric and right now more than ever we are buzzing about the opportunity to reach more customers and ensure a stress-free ordering experience.”

According to Biztech Africa, the company plans to expand to other major towns and provide job opportunities to people across Kenya.

As part of its third-anniversary celebrations, the company discounted food up to 40 percent on Black Friday. HelloFood said they hoped to reach the highest ever sale of food ordering in Africa on Black Friday.

– Jordan Connell

Sources: Biztech Africa, It News Africa
Photo: Google Images