Hellofood works with over 60 local restaurants, hotels and fast food joints around the city to deliver food to the busy corporate worker or the upwardly mobile.

Getting your take-away is as simple as clicking a button on their website, which bears an extensive menu, or you could still place the conventional phone call. Moses Opobo spoke to the country manager, Duncan Muchangi, about the concept …

What’s Hellofood?

Hellofood is an international online food ordering and delivery platform that works with various hotels and restaurants to deliver food to clients at a venue of their choice. We are neither a fast food service, or restaurant. In fact, Hellofood is a concept, not a physical place.

When and how did the company end up in Rwanda?

In September 2013, the company ventured into the virgin Rwandan market as a pioneer. As we considered new markets to venture into in Africa, we realized that technological penetration in Rwanda is growing very fast, there is a fast-growing middle class, many new eateries are coming up to cover this growing middle class, and there is a lot of investor interest from abroad.

Big food chains are coming to Rwanda, and yet online food ordering and delivery was virtually non-existent before. It was a virgin market, which is why it was attractive for us.

So where do you work from, and how?

Basically, we approach suitable hotels and restaurants with a partnership proposal, and once they come on board, we take their menus and upload them on our website–www.hellofood.com.

One can choose to order from the website, hellofood.com, use the mobile Android and iPhone applications, or place a direct telephone call.

We have a call center at Muhima, from where our agents receive real time internet notifications and phone orders, then call up the restaurants with the respective orders. Then our delivery team will be on the way to pick the order and deliver it.

We always try to keep a client updated on the progress of their order, for instance if the weather is bad, we inform them of any possible delays.” Delivery is by motor bike, and is limited to orders within Kigali.

What benefits accrue from ordering food online?

This is the best service because all the menus for all our partner restaurants are pre-loaded, so you take your sweet time to choose. Basically, it’s about the ability to choose your food from a whole host of service providers of different grades.

Which other countries does Hellofood operate in?

Our services are spread across Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Europe, with Asia as the biggest market, followed by Africa. In Africa, the service can be found in Nigeria, Morocco, Ghana, Senegal, Kenya, Côte d'Ivoire, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.