Chief Financial Officer and co-Chief Operating Officer at Vendease, the Y Combinator-backed food procurement startup serving restaurants across Africa, Mohamed Chaudry, has stepped down. His resignation comes after a period of intense restructuring within the company.

Over the past few months, Vendease has undergone significant changes, including two rounds of layoffs that affected 180 employees, an exit from the Ghanaian market, and revisions to its employee compensation structure.

These moves signal a strategic shift towards cost-efficiency, as the company adjusts to harsh economic conditions that have rocked e-commerce businesses in Nigeria and beyond.

The year 2024 proved challenging for the sector, with currency devaluation and inflation compressing profit margins. Even well-capitalised players like Jumia have scaled back multi-country operations to conserve cash.

Vendease, once expanding rapidly across West Africa, is now prioritising leaner operations and profitability.

During Chaudry’s tenure, the company pivoted away from resource-heavy warehousing and logistics to focus on software-driven solutions. These include payment processing, sales management, and a buy-now-pay-later BNPL credit offering. Vendease claims the BNPL product, which now applies daily interest, has disbursed $70 million in credit with a default rate of just 1%.

Despite tightening market conditions, the startup is currently seeking to extend its Series A funding. However, investor appetite in Nigeria has waned, particularly for companies without foreign currency income.

Chaudry joined Vendease in January 2024 to help scale operations. He now leads a new venture, The Scale Up CFO Hub, which provides advisory services to help startup founders become investor-ready.