Company: Oja
Website: my-oja.com
Business: Ethnic grocery delivery service focusing on Ghanaian, Jamaican and Nigerian foods.
About Mariam and Oja
Mariam Jimoh is British-born with Nigerian heritage who now resides in London. Founded in 2020, Oja is the birthchild of a need for convenient grocery shopping practices and a lack of accessibility to ethnic groceries.
After working in investment banking with endless work days, Jimoh had to turn to online grocery deliveries to suit her busy lifestyle. However, this type of shopping left her missing her favourite ethnic products which were not available online.
Oja is the answer to this problem. A London-based grocery delivery startup, it specialises in widening the choice of products available, especially for those UK immigrant and non-white British communities who are missing a taste of home.
Speaking about the company, Jimoh says: “When you’re a second-generation immigrant, food is almost the easiest thing you can have and take with you to connect with your culture.”
To begin with, Oja is focusing on African and Caribbean communities with special focus on Jamaican, Ghanaian and Nigerian products. This encompasses products such as cassava, scotch bonnet, yam and plantain which, despite being in demand, are not easily accessible through online grocery services.
Since launching in London, Oja has already secured a $3.3m seed round led by LocalGlobe. Angel investors include Anton Soulier, the founder of Taster, as well as Sharmadean Reid, the founder of The Stack World and Darren Shapland, CFO of Sainsbury’s.
Oja currently offers same-day delivery across London and the recent funding will be used to expand across further regions and continue to diversity available products in the coming months.
