Andela Alumni Raise $1.4 Million In Seed-Funding For Eden Life

A home-management service that seeks to make domestic life easier for Lagos inhabitants has raised a $1.4 million seed round. Eden Life, founded in 2019 by three ex-staff of Andela, Prosper Otemuyiwa, Sim Momoh and, Nadayar Enegesi (co-founder Andela), allow its customers to subscribe to automated chores from their mobile app. Customers get to choose from food, laundry, and cleaning services and have these tasks carried out conveniently by professionals. In its two years of operation, Eden Life has delivered over 60,000 services in Lagos. CEO Nadayar Enegesi states Eden Life has over 600 people using its services.

From 2019-2021, Eden Life has had three funding rounds. This latest round which amounted to $1.4 million, was led by UK-based venture capital firm, LocalGlobe. Other venture firms which participated include Samurai Incubate, Future Africa, Village Global, Rising Tide Africa, and Enza Capital.

Unlike other start-ups which focus on expanding after receiving more funding, Eden seems satisfied operating in Lagos alone, at least for now. Enegesi points out that this funding will go towards scaling the team, improving existing technology, as well as food production and operational facilities. “Lagos is a tough market, and we have to make sure everything works,” he said. “We’ve had to keep fine-tuning and our focus right now is to make this thing very smooth here. After that, we’ll start having conversations about where we expand to next.”

Considered the largest city in Sub-Saharan Africa and the heart of Nigeria, Lagos is home to about 14 million people. There’s a budding middle class, mainly Gen Z and millennial working professionals, who are too busy and stressed by the congestion and deteriorating conditions in the state to exert themselves with housework. These are the people Eden Life targets.

A monthly subscription for any of their services; the daily food plan, weekly cleaning, and bi-monthly laundry services, costs an average of $100 per customer. A quick multiplication of this fee by the 600 customers gives $60,000 monthly revenue. According to this article by TechCrunch, the CEO admits that the company makes more revenue than the given $60,000, although he declined to mention the exact amount.

With the features which the startup intends to put in place to grow the team and optimise operations, it is expected Eden Life will record even more revenue in the coming years.

Currently, Eden Life relies on external parties like delivery company, Gokada, to deliver meals, transport and laundry. However, it is looking to own and manage the supply chain so that it can deliver all services without dependence on any third party. This will ease operations and improve customer experience, something Eden Life is passionate about.

This passion was what stood out to Remus Brett, a partner at one of the leading investors of this round, LocalGlobe. Brett notes that Eden Life’s customer obsession is remarkable. In a statement to TechCrunch, he said that his company was in love with Eden’s “vision for the future of home services in Africa,” and believes that this, combined with a “core team who has proven experience building African tech to unrivalled levels sets Eden Life on an exciting path of growth.”