ETNOWE, a U.S.-based food and grocery delivery platform serving African and Caribbean communities, has raised $300,000 in a pre-seed round from a group of early backers to expand its operations across the United States.
Founded by Nigerian-born entrepreneur Ebenezer Oyinlade, ETNOWE is positioning itself as infrastructure for Africa’s diaspora, connecting immigrants and second-generation Africans to local restaurants and grocery stores that offer the flavors of home. While mainstream delivery platforms prioritize scale, ETNOWE is betting on cultural specificity as its entry point into the market.
The company’s early traction underscores that bet. Without spending a single dollar on marketing or raising prior capital, ETNOWE has processed thousands of orders and proven sustained, revenue-generating demand, driven entirely by organic adoption within diaspora communities.
“African and Caribbean food is everywhere in the U.S., but the technology serving those businesses hasn’t caught up,” said Oyinlade, founder and CEO of ETNOWE. “We’re building ETNOWE for people who know exactly what they want, food that feels like home.”
The pre-seed funding will be used to scale ETNOWE to 100,000 users, onboard 200+ restaurants and grocery stores, and strengthen its engineering, growth, and operations teams over the next 12–18 months.
ETNOWE operates within the rapidly expanding U.S. ethnic food and grocery market, which generated an estimated $50 billion in revenue last year and continues to grow as diaspora populations expand. By focusing on underserved African and Caribbean communities and offering better economics for both consumers and merchants, ETNOWE aims to capture a meaningful share of this market.
The company currently operates in multiple U.S. states and plans to pursue a larger institutional round in 2027.