FoodCourt

FoodCourt, formerly known as CoKitchen, is a Lagos-based virtual restaurant company that operates central (cloud) kitchens and sells food through its own consumer ordering app. Rather than acting as an aggregator that lists third-party restaurants, the company runs a full-stack model in which it controls the technology, food production and the delivery experience, cooking meals under multiple in-house virtual restaurant brands and dispatching them via last-mile partners stationed at its delivery hubs. Customers can order across several brands and receive the items in a single delivery. The company has also described plans to extend the same infrastructure to dark stores for convenience goods.

FoodCourt was part of Y Combinator's Summer 2022 batch and is described by YC as Africa's leading virtual restaurant company, having served over 350,000 meals in a 12-month period. By 2024 it ran 16 food concepts from two Lagos locations and was preparing to expand to Abuja, with stated ambitions for other African markets and the United States.

Operations later came under severe strain. In September 2024 the company made nearly 100 employees redundant following a redesign of its kitchen processes. Employees reportedly struck over unpaid wages in March, and by April its remaining kitchen(s) in Lagos had closed amid unpaid salaries and outstanding vendor obligations, leading to a suspension of operations. The company has stated it is restructuring rather than shutting down permanently and is seeking new capital to settle debts and resume service; no relaunch timeline has been made public.

Founding story

Henry Nneji grew up in an entrepreneurial family; his mother ran a quick-service restaurant franchise that closed after road construction cut off customer access, and his father Frank Nneji founded the transport company ABC Transport. After studying at the University of Birmingham, Nneji co-founded Fashion Map in 2019, an online platform connecting Nigerian fashion designers and consumers that reached over 3,000 users before shutting down. In 2020 he read about a $400 million investment in CloudKitchens, which prompted the idea of a full-stack delivery-first food business. With about N10 million (roughly $19,000 at the time) from his father, he co-founded the company with Paul Iruene and launched in August 2021 out of an existing restaurant kitchen.

Business model

FoodCourt owns and operates the full value chain: it runs multi-brand central kitchens that produce meals under its own virtual restaurant brands, takes orders through the FoodCourt app, and manages fulfilment with last-mile delivery partners based at its hubs. This contrasts with asset-light marketplace competitors that list independent restaurants, and it carries higher fixed costs for kitchens, staff, inventory and logistics.

Revenue comes from direct sales of prepared meals (and convenience goods) ordered through the FoodCourt app, with the company capturing the full food margin rather than a marketplace commission. Transactions were reported as fully cashless, with a majority of payments made using saved cards.

Traction

Reported milestones include 250,000+ meals delivered and $500,000+ all-time sales within about 11 months of launch, $110,000 in sales in June of that year, 2,650+ monthly active users at that time, and 100% cashless transactions. Y Combinator cites over 350,000 meals served in a 12-month period. Forbes Africa reported roughly $4.3 million in annual recurring revenue with 80% revenue growth over the prior 12 months, 16 food concepts, over 15,000 monthly active users and two Lagos locations as of January 2025.

Latest developments

FoodCourt suspended operations in 2026 after months of unpaid salaries and vendor debt; employees reportedly struck in March and the last kitchens closed in April. The company says it is not shutting down permanently and is seeking fresh capital alongside a restructuring plan to settle outstanding debts and resume operations, with no announced relaunch timeline.