{{Rwanda’s economic growth and people getting eager to use technology always bring in new business offered online, and one recently introduced was Hellofood helping men and women of office not to join restaurants to have their food.}}
Introduced only two years ago and available in 45 countries around the world, Hellofood is now available in Rwanda and other 11 countries in Africa.
Duncan Muchangi, the country manager of Hellofood in Rwanda met IGIHE’s Elisée Mpirwa and explained more about this new saviour of time for many busy people around Kigali.
{{What is Hellofood?}}
Hellofood is an online platform. We enable customers to easily, fast and conveniently order food online and get it delivered to their home or office.
We are an online food marketplace. We provide to restaurants an online platform and a mobile platform to be able to reach customers. We partner with restaurants and currently we have more than 65 restaurants partners in Kigali.
Our work is to go and get customers, provide for them a platform where they can see up to 50 restaurants, chose from whichever they want to order from, look at their menu, chose their favourite meal and get it delivered to home or office.
{{How does it work?}}
There are several ways to use hellofood services. The first one could be to access it through the website (www.hellofood.com). On the website there several ways you follow after telling us where you are located.
There you find restaurants that can deliver to your area within the given time. From those restaurants you chose which one you need to eat from and chose the meal.
We have two payment options: the first one is cash on delivery, and we also have mobile payments (Tigo Cash or MTN Mobile Money). Once you click press your order you will see a confirmation message on your mobile phone.
Within a minute our customer service will call you to confirm the details and to take any farther instructions.
Hellofood is accessible through web and mobile. We have just launched our new mobile application. It’s available on three operating systems (IOs, Android and Windows). It works exactly the same way as the web.
Hellofood promises to deliver the food within an hour. That is the agreement we have with our partner restaurants.
{{What were your motives to establish yourselves in Rwanda?}}
Rwanda has a very vibrant restaurant scene. When we say we have more than 65 restaurants partners in Kigali, people are surprised.
So, when identified the market we saw that the restaurant scene was quite exciting: different cuisines, people like eating out, people like to try different food; but most importantly there was one gap.
There was no delivery service despite having these fantastic restaurants; people can only go to the restaurants to have a meal.
It was a perfect opportunity to fill in that gap. So, we came in to the market, partnered up with these restaurants and provided for an online platform for delivery.
{{Who are your targeted clients?}}
In Rwanda right now, we serve from the young to the old. Most of our customers are professionals (the offices in town, the busy professionals). Beyond that, we have our customers who have guests at home, when people get together for a party.
{{What is the perception of Hellofood on the Rwandan market?}}
Online services are pretty new. And so, the first perception is like any other new online service. When we introduced our website that offers food delivery, people thought we were a restaurant.
So, we had to change people’s mentality. I think the perception now has changed into this brand new easy, fast and convenient way. And furthermore it is very technological as people start to get interested in tech.
{{Are your services available countywide?}}
No. Currently we operate only in Kigali, but there are plans to expand it to the near cities.
{{How can someone with no access to internet enjoy your services?}}
If you do not have access to internet, then the easiest or the quickest thing to do is to give us a call. There can make recommendations for the kind of restaurants that can deliver to your area; we can give you some of our popular food from those restaurants and you could easily order from your phone.
{{What are the challenges you are facing?}}
I think our greatest challenge is educating the customers. Trying to prove to customers that you can go online, order your food and it will be at your door step within an hour.
You do not interact with the waiter; you do not see the cook and all that. So, educating the customers has been one of the challenges, but we have gone a really long way in trying to go out there and demonstrate the service, show people how it works. Currently we have done pretty well in terms of awareness, but people are learning.
{{You operate in Tigo Rwanda’s premises, are you owned by this telecommunication company?}}
Well, let me explain the reason behind being hosted at Tigo. Hellofood is part of a company called Africa internet holding. This company has three main players: Tigo, MTN and the mother of hellofood which is rocket internet. So, Rocket internet has partnered with Tigo and MTN to roll out internet businesses in Africa.
{{Where do you see hellofood in 5 years?}}
Uh hum! Well! Hellofood will become paramount way to get food. When you think about food, the only thing on your mind will be hellofood. And this is because of accessibility number one.
We are accessible on very many channels; from website to mobile and even the traditional phone calls. That accessibility ensures that we fulfil most of the food needs.
Now, beyond that we provide a lot of catering and events. People can have an account on hellofood and get a monthly bill. We will become primary way to transact food.
{{Thank you Duncan}}
You’re very much welcome.
mpirwaelisee@igihe.rw
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