Chowdeck has laid off 86 contract staff following an optimisation of its rider and restaurant operations. The move comes as the company streamlines its processes to sustain growth and improve efficiency.
CEO Femi Aluko revealed that Chowdeck’s operations team expanded sixfold in the past year, growing from 20 employees in January 2024 to 120 in January 2025. However, the current staff strength was deemed unsustainable given the company’s aggressive expansion plans for 2025, which aim for a fivefold growth. As a result, Chowdeck has reduced its reliance on manual processes, improving delivery times and overall efficiency.
“As we were growing very fast last year, we had to hire a lot of contract people to help handle a lot of things in operations,” Aluko explained. “In the last two months, we’ve optimised a lot of those processes that now require us to not need as many people as we needed before for our contract employees.”
He emphasized that the decision was not due to financial distress but rather a result of successful operational enhancements. Processes that previously required 24 staff members can now be handled by just two. These improvements have also reduced average delivery times from 41 minutes to 33 minutes.
The affected contract employees were informed earlier today and will receive a severance package, including three months’ salary and health insurance. Chowdeck has also committed to assisting as many as possible in securing jobs elsewhere. Full-time employees remain unaffected.
Despite the layoffs, Chowdeck continues to expand rapidly. The startup, which raised $2.5 million in seed funding in 2024, reached 10 million deliveries as of March 3, 2025. Notably, six million of those deliveries were completed within the past nine months.
In January, Chowdeck launched in Kaduna and Owerri, and it is set to begin beta operations in Ghana next week. The company has appointed a country manager for Ghana but intends to maintain a lean team, leveraging its enhanced operational model. Initially, services will be available only in Accra, in line with Chowdeck’s city-focused expansion strategy.
Chowdeck’s improved efficiency has also accelerated its expansion timeline. While launching in a new city previously took three months, the company can now do so in just a week. Its recent Owerri launch was completed over a weekend, underscoring the effectiveness of its streamlined processes.
