Lagos shoppers in open-air markets know to expect foul smells from rotten and trampled-upon fresh food like tomatoes and bananas. Should it rain, physical shopping becomes worse as the mixture creates messy footpaths. Couple these with the scorching sun, and back-and-forth movements in search of a bargain, and shopping becomes daunting for many.
Mile 12 market is one of such busy open-air markets in Lagos, Nigeria. About 20 minutes from there, shoppers will find a much quieter floor space with a dozen staff working for a company known as MyFoodAngels. The staff are sorting and packaging items like bell peppers, tomatoes, pineapples, bags of rice, and frozen food. The packages are based on customer requests.
Olapeju Umah founded MyFoodAngels in 2018, a few years before Nigeria’s tech ecosystem rebirth in 2021. The company is a grocery delivery startup that provides users with farm-fresh foods and personalised meal recommendations.
As a B2B and B2C startup, the food tech company services hotels, restaurants and individuals with groceries including tomatoes, bell peppers, palm oil and protein. It operates an e-commerce site and a social commerce service, using WhatsApp to take user orders. If orders arrive between 8 and 10 AM, deliveries could happen the same day.
Umah’s childhood experiences of accompanying her mum to the market coupled with the harsh realities of Nigeria’s food inflation crisis inspired her business venture. “I have always been surrounded by food all my life. However, food prices have continued to rise rapidly and I do not expect income earners to spend all their salary on food,” Umah said during a visit to her floor space and office in Ketu, Lagos.
As of October 2024, Nigeria’s food inflation rose to nearly 40%, suggesting that two-thirds of families struggle to eat three times daily. Umah noted that even in 2018, salary earners struggled to keep pace with rising food prices, often sacrificing quality for convenience or affordability.
With this in mind, Umah began to shop for herself. Later, her neighbours who could not navigate the market asked her to stock up on their household supplies. She created a business out of this and called it “Mile 12 Market Woman”.
She continued with this name for three years until a necessary pivot in 2021. The name Mile 12 Market Woman limited the scope of the business to the Mile 12 market and the scale Umah envisaged. “Anyone can run errands to the market these days. But we needed to be more than that.”
The pivot came with a name change from Mile 12 Market Woman to MyFoodAngels.
Nigeria loses ₦3.5 trillion ($2.11 billion) to post-harvest losses. That figure is nine times more than the agricultural budget for this year. More acutely, this loss claims nearly half of all the crops, especially fruits, vegetables and tuber crops. The situation is more dire when it comes to tomatoes.
The solution to these losses, according to Umah, was in the seed stage production. Modern farmers encouraged Umah to consider a tomato hybrid that will improve yield levels to 80% from the usual 20% sold in the markets. Also, a hybrid seed would be immune to tuta absoluta, known by the common name tomato leafminer or tomato ebola ravaging tomato crops in the country.
“To be clear, these are not genetically modified organism (GMO) seeds, they are hybrid F1s,” Umah clarified. The CEO explained that going back to the farm to perfect tomatoes helped the product to last long without being broken or spoilt.
With a network of farmers outside Lagos, MyFoodAngels provides seeds to farmers who do the farming on their behalf. At the end of the harvest season, the farmers keep 30% of the yield while giving 70% to the company. Sometimes, the farmers want us to offtake everything, Umah said.
MyFoodAngels ran a similar test to get the right seeds for milling palm oil. The process of milling the right palm oil required her to test her product against four different market sources. Fully convinced of the milling process, Umah sells between 500 millilitres to five-litre bottles to her customers. The shelf life of the palm oil is 24 months and it’s odour-free. This arrangement keeps costs on these two items low for the business, generating sustained profits.
MyFoodAngels prioritises both quality and affordable pricing. Olomu Omonigho, the Operations Manager, said that lower prices for essential items like tomatoes and palm oil have led to increased customer spending and loyalty. By saving on these products, customers can allocate their budget to other items, benefiting both the customer and the company.
MyFoodAngels has experienced significant growth, serving over 50,000 customers by September 2024.
“We don’t sell broken tomatoes and in any case it breaks, we can repackage it as pepper mix or ready to eat,” Umah said while pointing to the company’s fuel and solar-powered freezers.
MyFoodAngels’ offerings to the market
MyFoodAngels has three offerings, namely: “Name Your Price”, “Daily Products” and “Food Offtake”.
Name Your Price allows users to customise shopping lists, and empowers customers to shop on the budget they have.
Daily Products cover products that the company has no control over like rice, for instance. Rice packaging companies pack the rice and distribute it through MyFoodAngels as one of their channel partners.
High delivery costs and cold storage are one rocky hill the company is currently navigating because of a firm decision to stay asset-light. The company has plans to drop delivery costs from ₦5,500 ($3.26) by onboarding a new logistics partner.
The company offers special events called “food offtakes” twice a month, in the second and last week. During these events, customers can purchase specific farm-fresh products at discounted prices. To participate, customers receive a unique link generated from the company website.
MyFoodAngels has streamlined its processes to make sure that nearly all its products on sale for that event are entirely farm-to-table.
One of MyFoodAngels’ key differentiators is its focus on quality and traceability.
“We are worried about adulterated items that are usually the norm every December,” says Umah. “We will run a campaign against adulterated food and unhygienic practices next year. Some people do not know that they could be eating vegetables that have been trampled upon or food stuffed with dirt.”
On traceability, she says, “We supply every food item. But we have direct control over tomatoes and palm oil as our flagship. One thing we try to avoid is depending on the market because we cannot trace the source. With the farm, we know who the farmer is in case there is an issue. Being able to serve customers from a reliable source we can trace is our north star.”
MyFoodAngels competes with YC-backed ChowDeck, Mano, Glovo, and GoLemon but does not think the space is highly competitive. Umah is very modest about the competition despite nearing a decade in the grocery delivery business. She classifies her competition as direct and indirect.
“We partner and supply a few competitors since they are playing in a space that is not their forte. This is why they are indirect. Their forte is logistics. We have had a few reasons to collaborate with the direct competition. But we see the competition as more opportunities. The market is not as saturated as you think it is.”
According to Umah, COVID-19 was a defining moment for the sector because the government did not know food logistics was available. This is why she thinks the sector is not saturated. “We are still few. That’s why the recognition from official sources like the government has not fully come.”
What’s next for MyFoodAngels?
MyFoodAngels is bootstrapped and profitable. Umah says, “We were profitable from day one because of the model we operate. I started with zero naira and a car, advertising to people to give me their list for market runs.” The business charges a margin of around 10% on its product, strictly working on principles of unit economics.
Now the company has set its sights on scale and expansion.
The company is currently in the market for a $500,000 raise after six years of not requesting investors’ money. Part of the money will be used to scale operations to Abuja where the company has been testing the market. It also plans to launch a mobile app soon, making it easier to onboard more customers. It has plans to optimise its services with predictive AI to enhance its current offerings.
In 2025, MyFoodAngels will partner with chefs like Chef Amaka and Omoye Cooks to resume its food delivery service.
