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was if we can save individuals this time every day, we can save up to 10 hours a month per employee, which can translate into tangible productivity value for the company, not to mention less frustration for the individual.”
A snap survey showed Stephanou that corporate employees prioritise convenience to such an extent that they are willing to pay extra for an online platform like Uber Eats, rather than lose time waiting in lunch queues.
“The idea of an internal meal-ordering platform made sense to me, and after a successful pilot at a catering company, we launched tastepal in May 2017. Tastepal is now in eight corporates in Johannesburg and Cape Town and is poised to expand into Africa.”
The way the app works is simple: staff members view the menu of their in-house restaurant or canteen on the app, order their meal, make payment and receive a notification when their meal is ready to be collected. Tastepal is in partnership with two catering companies that pay a monthly retainer plus a setup fee.
Tastepal has also partnered with Foodforward SA, a food security nongovernmental organisation, to redistribute surplus food to other NGOS that support hungry women and children. “Our preliminary goal is to contribute to 150 000 meals by the end of 2019, and to contribute to one million meals by the end of 2021,” says Stephanou.
When Stephanou says he’s poised to expand into Africa, he really means it: tastepal was selected to participate in the Business Africa Forum in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, in December as well as for the Creative Lab in the Africities conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, in November.
Stephanou is an active member of the African Union-european Union (AU/ EU) Youth Hub, one of only 42 designated global “Young Experts”, and he also recently took part in in the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa conference in November 2018.
The World Summit Awards, for which tastepal was nominated, aim to promote the world’s best digital start-up companies and innovative apps that have a strong social impact element, or which focus on the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Doors are opening for this savvy social entrepreneur with a heart for Africa. Jordan Stephanou is a name to watch.