Vendease

Vendease, a Y Combinator-backed Nigerian food procurement startup, has laid off 120 employees, representing 44% of its workforce, as part of a second round of restructuring aimed at achieving profitability and extending its financial runway. This move, announced on February 19, 2025, follows a previous layoff of 68 staff in September 2024. Facing macroeconomic challenges like naira devaluation and rising inflation, the company is shifting toward a more capital-efficient model, including monetizing its buy-now-pay-later service and implementing AI for automation, while seeking a Series A extension round to support its operations in the competitive food delivery and e-commerce industry.

Nigerian food procurement startup Vendease laid off 27 employees, representing 9% of its nearly 300-strong workforce, in late November 2022. The company stated the decision was performance-based and not due to the broader economic climate, noting it had tripled its staff and grown revenue fivefold over the previous year. After placing affected employees on improvement plans for months, Vendease offered severance packages. The layoffs occurred despite the company having raised a $30 million Series A round just two months prior to expand its operations across Nigeria and Ghana.