In Nigeria’s startup world, a popular saying goes: you either die a startup or live long enough to become a fintech. Today, Chowdeck, the YC-backed on-demand delivery startup, proved that point, as customers can now buy airtime and data directly from its app. Over 1,000 customers have already tried the feature on its first day, according to Chowdeck’s CEO.
At first glance, the move might seem puzzling, but it makes perfect sense. After dominating the food delivery market and crossing one million monthly orders, Chowdeck has reached the scale and high-frequency use where diversifying revenue is both logical and necessary, as the new feature marks the company’s first step toward becoming a super app.
Super apps aren’t new. When OPay entered the Nigerian market, it offered ride-hailing, payments, and food delivery before regulation forced it to focus solely on fintech. That period of diversification supercharged its growth and helped cement it as a daily-use app for millions.
In Asia, super apps like Grab and GoTo have shown how far this model can scale. Grab reported $873 million in revenue in Q3 2025, while GoTo holds a $4.25 billion valuation.
Across Francophone West Africa, I’ve seen how this playbook works in the past week of my travels. Yango, the Dubai-headquartered super app, bundles ride-hailing, food delivery, and payments under one roof. Jumia, too, has Jumia Pay. By expanding into payments, Chowdeck now owns more of the customer’s digital life.
If Chowdeck adds ride-hailing, then you can buy food, pay bills, and order rides all from one app. Why would you not build your life around Chowdeck? The more services customers can access within a single app, the less likely they are to churn.
What next: To maximise its super app ambition, Chowdeck could open its currently closed-loop system and let users transfer money between wallets, but doing so will plunge the startup into Nigeria’s murky waters of fintech regulation. Paystack’s ₦250 million ($174,000) fine over Zap operations can offer a cautionary tale.
Right now, it seems like the company is integrated with a licenced mobile money operator (MMO) or payments service bank (PSB) that handles all the regulatory aspects, while Chowdeck built the user experience. If the company wants to eventually hold the licence in-house, it will need to fork out over ₦4 billion ($2.8 million) for a licence.
