Fhoodi

Consumers have greater choice over what to eat and they expect to be able to access menus or products, nutritional composition, to view prices and offers, to order meals quickly and easily - no matter whether online or on-premise. For food service providers keeping these information easily accessible, consistent and  up to date on multiple social channels can be very challenging. Similarly, for consumers to find information about these services is mostly a turn off and may sort after services they are already familiar with thereby limiting their choices.A dedicated mobile social application for food that serves as a channel for professionals and businesses in the food industry to share and disseminate information categorized as images, blogs, events, promotions and menu items to educate and create awareness for consumers in order for them to make informed and healthy decisions at large despite the variety of dishes available to them.

Today, the busy lifestyle of millenials has affected eating habits. People tend to cook less, eat out more and rely on packaged and fast foods. The availability and popularity of unhealthy food makes it convenient for majority of people to consume as their first choice of food. With the environment shaping our behaviors, consuming fast food and junk foods is practiced by both children and adults. However, junk foods are highly processed with excess fats and sugar which increases the flavor and caloric density of the foods, while stripping away the fiber, vitamins, and nutrients that is good for our health. Thus they are considered unhealthy as they contribute to an increased risk of obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and many other chronic health conditions.Consumers also tend to eat too much in one sitting, and those who have satisfied their appetite with junk food are less likely to eat healthy foods like fruits and vegetables. 
A research on consumption of fast foods in Ghana suggested a direct correlation between consumption of junk food and obesity rates. Globally fast food chains have a wider visibility as compared to local market where people can patronize whole foods appealing to majority of the society.

Food is one of the basic needs of humans. However, there are various factors considered for food choice and consumption. These factors include cultural, physiological or nutritional needs, economical among others. Millennials spend more money eating out and patronizing already packaged food from foodservice operators such as restaurants. While food service providers aim at satisfying customers amidst change in consumer needs ,  customer tends to be loyal if the provider can be trusted, reliable in communication and committed in providing excellent service.

We are working with food service providers to help them digitally engage with both potential and existing customers and enhance communication. We provide a medium where they can share content about their services,location and contains details, menus and prices, blogs to create awareness of a particular food item, announce upcoming events and promotions, and receive orders from customers. Additionally, they can monitor and track customer food journey to be able understand consumer needs and provide services to reach target consumers. Alternatively, consumers easily have access to myriad of food service providers based on their food choices , make informed decisions with the content provided and choose healthier foods .

Fhoodi provides a digital medium where consumers can engage with food service providers and professionals to make informed decisions of their food choices using content in the form of informative articles called stories and images of food. Content are tailored based on user’s food preference for providers to target audience directly while consumers exactly what feed on exactly what they need. Fhoodi consist of two mobile applications, Fhoodi and Fhoodi Business. Fhoodi serves as a medium to provide nutrition education and promote good food and diet to solve poor health and malnutrition whereas Fhoodi Business  helps food service providers to better understand customers needs and demands.

Fhoodi is an online social platform for food. It serves the purpose of a content platform for food service operators to present information that can be accessed and interacted with targeted consumers. It also consist of features  that enables consumers to share images of variety of food which serves as an inspiration to others and data for food service operators to understand consumer behavior and needs. Users can also access stories(links) from reliable external source in the form of news or blog post provided by food service operators. Fhoodi Business is management application targeted at food service operators to engage with consumers anywhere and everywhere to better understand consumer needs and preferences. It leverages content marketing as a means for providers to drive sales. Providers have the ability to share information that is categorised either as  menu, event, stories and promotion with targeted consumers.

As a platform dedicated for food, we aim to provide holistic approach to food consumption service from consumer behavioral study through to product sale and delivery for consumers. We work with food service providers to help them socially engage their product consistently with target audience both potential and existing customers to enhance communication and drive sales. Though there are undeniably existing platforms such social media and websites with which food businesses have capitalized on to achieve growth, there is difficulty in maintaining consistency across the various multiple channels. Our solution enables providers to consistently deliver personalized content to provide a consistent customer experience,  allow monitoring customer journey and customer experience data can be used for actionable decision making.Through consistency, brand, product and prestige recognition is established while loyalty among the consumer base is developed. Alternatively, consumers have a wider range of choices to patronize based on their preferences and nutritional needs.

Our core technology includes mobile and web technologies. Currently, the solution uses the android application technology for users to access it on their mobile devices. We also use Microsoft Azure Cognitive Service to determine food in images shared on the platform and a third party library to determine the nutrition composition of a particular food item.

2 Part-time software engineers.

Sandra Konotey, CEO and Mobile applications developer. Her role involves managing the business as well as designing, developing and maintaining the android application. She has been a Software Engineer for 3 years with experience in web services and android application development. 

Joshua Leigh,CTO and Backend developer. His role is to develop and maintain the database and API(Application Programming Interface)  as well as ensuring the  security and stability of the software infrastructure. He has been a Software Engineer for 3 years with experience in development of .Net applications, iOS mobile applications and devOps.

As a medium for food service providers to reach target consumers, we intend providing an advertising model for businesses as well as service subscription for more in-depth features.

Currently, we are self funding the project until we are able to raise investment capital and scale with incoming profits.

As a team made up solely engineers, we seek primarily mentorship in the area of business development to help us fine-tune the project in other to scale and make impact.