Brian Otieno, a Kenyan innovation business owner, is developing KulaMtaania food-commerce platform developed to assist dining establishments, food suppliers and personal chefs handle their operations, get orders and coordinate company activities through one system.
Introduced in June 2025, KulaMtaani is targeting functional difficulties dealt with by food services that depend on WhatsApp messages, telephone call, note pads, spreadsheets and detached applications to handle everyday activities. Through his business, Rorik-Asilic Infotech Group Limited, Otieno intends to bring these procedures together while making service innovation more available to smaller sized business.
The start-up has actually engaged with more than 70 food organizations, especially around Nairobi, as it works to verify its item and reinforce its market position.
Instead of placing KulaMtaani exclusively as a food shipment market, Otieno wishes to construct a more comprehensive operating platform covering digital shops, order management, point-of-sale operations, shipment coordination, provider procurement and organization reporting.
The aspiration features the difficulties of constructing an innovation business from the ground up. Otieno states much of the advancement has actually been moneyed through individual resources, needing business to stabilize item advancement with client acquisition, facilities and merchant onboarding.
In this edition of CEO Weekends, Otieno goes over the motivation behind KulaMtaani, the issues it looks for to resolve, lessons from early engagement with food organizations, the truths of bootstrapping an innovation start-up and his vision for the future of food commerce in Kenya and other African markets.
What inspired you to begin KulaMtaani, and what else have you developed before this?
My name is Brian Otieno, a Kenyan innovation expert and business owner with a background in Business Information Technology and experience structure software application options for company operations. My work has actually exposed me to how innovation can resolve useful issues when it is developed around the requirements of individuals utilizing it.
KulaMtaani outgrew my interest in making innovation more available to daily services, especially in the food market. I saw a chance to construct something that would assist dining establishments, food suppliers and personal chefs handle their organizations more effectively without requiring pricey or complex systems.
Through Rorik-Asilic Infotech Group Limited, the business behind KulaMtaani, I am working towards a wider objective of establishing useful innovation items that assist organizations run, serve clients and grow. My experience structure software application has actually taught me that producing an item is just part of the task. The genuine difficulty is constructing something individuals truly require, can pay for and will continue utilizing.
What issue did you see in the food company that caused KulaMtaani?
I saw that running a food organization includes a lot more than preparing and offering food. Entrepreneur need to handle orders, interact with clients, coordinate shipments, track sales, source active ingredients and keep day-to-day operations moving. In lots of little and growing companies, these activities are dealt with through different applications, call, WhatsApp messages, note pads and spreadsheets.
That develops unneeded intricacy. Details gets spread, orders can be missed out on, and company owner invest important time collaborating activities rather of concentrating on their consumers and items.
At the exact same time, numerous existing digital services focus mainly on assisting consumers find food and location shipment orders. I saw a chance to approach the issue from business owner’s side: what if a food organization could handle more of its operations from one platform?
That concern turned into one of the structures of KulaMtaani.
What makes KulaMtaani various from other food-commerce platforms?
KulaMtaani is not being constructed just as another food shipment market. Our objective is to produce an os for food commerce that unites the tools food organizations require to offer, handle orders and collaborate their operations.
The platform is developed to support various parts of the food company, consisting of order management, company shops, point-of-sale operations, shipment coordination, expert food services, provider procurement and company reporting.
We likewise identify that food services run in a different way. A dining establishment serving walk-in consumers has various requirements from a personal chef taking reservations or a food supplier getting orders online. We desire the platform to support these various company designs without requiring everybody into the exact same workflow.
The larger distinction is the instructions we are taking: rather than focusing just on the deal in between a consumer and a dining establishment, we are constructing the functional facilities around that deal.
How does KulaMtaani assist food companies run their daily operations?
KulaMtaani is developed to bring a number of company activities into one linked environment.
A service can utilize its digital store to provide its items and get orders, while order management tools assist arrange inbound demands. Point-of-sale abilities support counter sales, and shipment coordination assists services handle fulfilment through their readily available shipment plans.
We are likewise establishing the more comprehensive functional side of food commerce. The provider and procurement performance is planned to assist food services demand materials, produce purchase orders, evaluation expenses and track provider actions. Reporting and notices assist organizations monitor pertinent activities.
The goal is to minimize the requirement to change in between detached tools and make daily operations much easier to collaborate. We desire entrepreneur to invest less time handling fragmented procedures and more time enhancing their items, serving clients and growing their organizations.
What have you gained from screening KulaMtaani with companies up until now?
Among the greatest lessons has actually been that constructing a beneficial item needs more than including functions. You need to comprehend how services really work, what they have problem with every day and what they want to alter about their existing procedures.
Our early engagement with food organizations has actually assisted us value the value of simpleness, cost and useful worth. A company owner does not embrace a platform just since it has lots of abilities. They require to see how it makes their work simpler, assists them serve consumers or enhances the method they handle business.
We have actually likewise found out that various organizations have various top priorities. Some might care most about getting online orders, while others require much better control over counter sales, shipments or procurement. That has actually affected our choice to develop KulaMtaani as a wider platform instead of a single-purpose application.
We are treating this phase as a chance to keep improving the item, enhance onboarding and develop a design that can work for services of various sizes.
What traction has KulaMtaani accomplished considering that releasing?
Considering that introducing in June 2025, KulaMtaani has actually engaged with more than 70 food services, especially around the Kimbo and Kiambu locations, as we work to verify the item and its effectiveness to the marketplace.
The journey has actually not been totally simple. We experienced an early obstacle when a hosting disruption led to the loss of our preliminary organization database, requiring us to reconstruct and continue from a brand-new structure. That experience was hard, however it likewise strengthened the significance of trusted facilities and constructing a company that can stand up to functional problems.
Our development up until now has actually been driven mostly by our own resources. We are now concentrated on enhancing the platform, enhancing merchant onboarding and turning early market interest into constant, active use.
We see the preliminary organization relationships as a structure instead of the goal. Our next turning point is to show repeat use, develop a sustainable consumer acquisition procedure and grow a more powerful base of organizations that count on KulaMtaani in their day-to-day operations.
What has been the most significant difficulty in developing the platform?
The greatest difficulty has actually been stabilizing item advancement with the resources needed to take the item to market.
As an innovation creator, I can invest time in creating and constructing performance, however a great item does not instantly draw in clients. Reaching services, showing worth, supporting onboarding and structure trust all need time, cash and constant engagement.
We have actually needed to make tough choices about what to develop initially, how to keep the facilities and how to grow without costs beyond our methods. Much of the work has actually been moneyed from individual resources, which puts limitations on how rapidly we can perform our industrial strategies.
That experience has actually altered how I think of entrepreneurship. It is inadequate to show that you can construct innovation. You need to likewise show that you can disperse it, keep consumers and develop a sustainable service around it.
Our focus now is to turn the work currently purchased KulaMtaani into quantifiable adoption and a more powerful industrial structure.
What is your vision for KulaMtaani over the next 5 years?
Over the next 5 years, I desire KulaMtaani to end up being a relied on operating platform for food companies in Kenya and, ultimately, throughout other African markets.
I see a future where a dining establishment, personal chef or food supplier can handle a significant part of their organization through one linked system: from providing items and getting orders to dealing with sales, collaborating shipments, buying materials and comprehending service efficiency.
Beyond private services, I desire KulaMtaani to assist link the broader food-commerce environment, consisting of merchants, providers, shipment companies and clients. This might make daily organization procedures more collaborated and develop chances for companies that have actually generally run with restricted access to incorporated innovation.
We plan to grow in phases, beginning with showing constant worth for food services in our preliminary markets before broadening geographically and deepening the platform’s abilities.
Eventually, I do not desire KulaMtaani to be understood just as a location to purchase food. I desire it to enter into the facilities that assists food services run much better, reach more consumers and construct sustainable business.
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