Femi Aluko is doing something most entrepreneurs only dream about, fundamentally changing the way an entire nation eats. He is building a food delivery platform from scratch, designed specifically for Nigeria, with Nigerian realities at its core.
As Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Chowdeck, Femi has earned his place as one of Crest Africa’s Under 40 most influential leaders in technology and consumer innovation.
Born on March 31, 1993, his path to entrepreneurship was deliberate and precise. He graduated as the best student in his class at Obafemi Awolowo University with a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, before joining Paystack in 2017 as its fifth engineer and first Core Payments Engineer.
There, he helped build the payment infrastructure routing over 100,000 transactions daily, eventually rising to Principal Engineer, gaining first-hand experience of what scalable, reliable African technology looks like at its best.
In October 2021, alongside fellow Paystack alumni Olumide Ojo and Lanre Yusuf, Femi co-founded Chowdeck, built on the conviction that Nigerians deserved fast, dependable food delivery designed for their cities.
What began with three bikes and two restaurant partners has grown into a nationwide logistics platform serving over one million registered users across eight Nigerian cities, processing over ₦30 billion in total deliveries, and powering thousands of restaurants from Lagos to Ibadan to Port Harcourt.
The business performance has attracted serious investment. In May 2024, Chowdeck secured $2.5 million in seed funding from Y Combinator, Goodwater Capital, FoundersX Ventures, and True Culture Fund.
By August 2025, a further $9 million round led by Novastar and Y Combinator confirmed Chowdeck’s position as one of Africa’s most commercially strong food tech companies.
In June 2025, the company acquired Mira, a point-of-sale startup serving over 500 restaurants, accelerating its growth from a delivery platform into a full-service super app for Africa’s food economy.
Recognition has followed the results. In December 2024, Nigerian CEO Magazine named Femi in its 40 Under 40 CEOs list, and the Future Awards Africa honoured him in the Technology category that same year, one of Nigeria’s most respected accolades for outstanding young leaders.
He has spoken at the Meta Youth Summit and the Bluechip Data and AI Summit, and is widely regarded across Africa’s tech ecosystem as a builder who solves hard problems with discipline, ships fast, and lets the product speak.
Femi Aluko is proof that Africa’s next great technology companies will be built by those who understand their home deeply enough to build something it has never seen before.
Image Credit: 88lately
