From an Idea to GroceNow — Built for Kampala
Our Story
GroceNow wasn’t built overnight.
For nearly three years, it existed as an idea being researched, tested, questioned, and refined — but never launched.
During that time, we were working at Faras, while developing the GroceNow idea as a side project. Being close to the day-to-day realities of transport and delivery in Kampala gave us the opportunity to see something important: there was still a major gap between local markets, customers, businesses, and delivery riders.
And that gap kept becoming clearer.
It Started With a Simple Question
Why should shopping from a local market become significantly more expensive just because it is ordered online?
Kampala has countless local markets and businesses offering fresh produce, groceries, household essentials, and everyday products at competitive local prices.
But accessing them isn't always convenient.
Customers have to deal with traffic, spend time moving from one shop or market to another, negotiate transportation, and sometimes travel long distances just to complete everyday shopping.
We believed technology could make this easier.
The idea behind GroceNow became simple:
Bring Kampala's local markets closer to customers — while keeping products as close as possible to the same local market prices they would expect when shopping themselves.
Convenience shouldn't automatically mean unnecessarily expensive shopping.
Then We Saw Another Problem
The more we studied Kampala's delivery industry, the more we realized the challenge wasn't only affecting customers.
Restaurants and local businesses were also struggling.
Traditional food-delivery platforms can charge businesses significant commissions on every order. For smaller businesses operating on tight margins, those fees can make online delivery difficult to sustain.
Businesses may respond by increasing online prices.
Customers end up paying more.
And yet, the people physically making the deliveries — the riders — can still struggle to earn enough after spending long hours on the road and covering costs such as fuel, motorcycle maintenance, mobile data, and other daily expenses.
We kept seeing the same pattern:
Customers wanted affordability.
Businesses wanted fairer access to online customers.
Riders wanted better earning opportunities.
Local markets needed a simpler way to reach people digitally.
That gap became the foundation of GroceNow.
Why We Built GroceNow
GroceNow was created to build a different kind of local commerce and delivery platform for Kampala.
A platform designed around the realities of the city we operate in.
Our goal is to connect customers with local markets, grocery sellers, restaurants, merchants, and delivery riders through one convenient platform.
We want customers to be able to open GroceNow, find what they need, order it conveniently, and have it delivered without feeling that online shopping must come with unreasonable markups.
At the same time, we want to create a model where local businesses can participate in digital commerce without being overwhelmed by excessive platform costs, while creating meaningful delivery opportunities for riders.
Three Years Before Launch
Those three years were not wasted time.
They allowed us to observe.
To learn.
To understand customers.
To understand riders.
To understand merchants.
And most importantly, to understand that building another delivery app was not enough.
GroceNow needed a reason to exist.
That reason became clear:
Make local shopping more accessible, make delivery more practical, and build a platform that works for the people who actually power Kampala's everyday economy.
Starting in Kampala
Kampala is where our journey begins.
It is a city filled with hardworking traders, growing businesses, busy families, students, professionals, riders, restaurants, supermarkets, and vibrant local markets.
GroceNow is being built around that ecosystem.
We are starting locally, learning from every order, every customer, every merchant, and every rider.
Our ambition is bigger than simply delivering groceries.
We want to help build a stronger connection between local commerce and technology — making it easier for people to buy locally without always having to travel physically to the market.
Our Mission
Our mission is simple:
To make everyday shopping in Kampala easier, faster, fairer, and more accessible while supporting the local businesses and riders that keep our city moving.
This Is Just the Beginning
After three years of thinking, researching, building, stopping, improving, and starting again, GroceNow is finally becoming more than an idea.
We know we won't get everything perfect from day one.
But we are committed to listening, learning, and improving as we grow.
Because GroceNow isn't being built simply to deliver products.
We're building it to bring Kampala's markets closer to everyone.
GroceNow — Your Market. Your City. Delivered.