Eden Life pauses consumer business to refocus on corporate clients

Eden Life, the Nigerian home services startup known for its food, cleaning, and laundry subscriptions, has paused its consumer-facing business to concentrate on its higher-margin corporate catering and industrial food operations.

The company said the move is a strategic reset aimed at reaching profitability by 2026. In a statement made available to TechCabal on Wednesday, Eden Life noted that the decision will allow it to consolidate resources and double down on its B2B operations. 

“For Eden Life, ‘pausing’ is a strategic transition,” part of the statement read. “It means we are temporarily de-prioritising our individual consumer (B2C) offerings to consolidate our resources and focus on our high-growth, profitable B2B market.”

The shift reflects a broader recalibration among venture-backed consumer startups operating under  Nigeria’s prolonged economic strain. After two years of record food inflation,  foreign exchange volatility, rising logistics costs, and a shrinking middle class driven partly by emigration, scaling household subscription services profitably has become increasingly difficult.

Eden Life confirmed that its on-demand cleaning, laundry, and individual food subscription services are currently on “hiatus.” It added that  its “core business operations continue through our industrial catering and corporate food subscriptions,” which it described as the company’s “primary growth drivers.”

The decision was finalised in October 2025 following  what the company described as  a “rigorous internal audit of our unit economics.”

The change was first communicated to customers on January 7, when Lagos-based subscribers received an email informing them that services had been paused “until further notice” and that refunds would follow.

“After thoughtful consideration, management has decided to pause our services until further notice. This was not an easy decision, and it comes from a place of wanting to reset, reflect, and return stronger for you,” the company told customers.

Founded in Lagos in 2019 by three Andela alumni, including Nadayar Enegesi, Eden Life positioned itself as a convenience-focused service for customers willing to pay for managed home solutions. The startup handled logistics and quality control while third-party providers delivered the service. 

Subscribers could bundle cooked meals, laundry, and home cleaning under one plan. Its subscription prices have risen since 2023 due to inflation, with daily meal plans at about ₦150,000 ($100) and minimum service spends ranging from ₦5,000 to ₦11,500 ($3–$8), depending on the service.

Eden Life’s food subscriptions were once its flagship product, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, when premium Lagos households turned to managed home services. But macroeconomic headwinds gradually eroded margins.

“The viability of individual food subscriptions was challenged by macroeconomic factors over the last 24 months,” the company added. 

Expanding its focus on corporate subscriptions and industrial catering, Eden Life further noted that  it had found “a more sustainable way to deliver the quality Eden Life is known for at a scale that makes financial sense in the current economy.” 

The company added that many of its former premium household customers were now reached indirectly through the organisations it serves.

The reset follows years of expansion and mounting pressure. Eden Life raised about $600,000 in pre-seed funding before closing a $1.4 million seed round in 2021 backed by LocalGlobe, Future Africa, and Enza Capital.

TechCabal spoke to a former employee, who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss internal finances, and said the startup was generating roughly $1 million in annual recurring revenue at the time. The company has not publicly confirmed the figure. 

As funding tightened across the continent from 2023, Eden Life broadened its scope. It launched Eden Marketplace for groceries and household goods and introduced Homemade by Eden Life, a lower-priced food line. In the same year, the company also launched a food sub-brand called Homemade by Eden and opened kitchens in Lagos to manage meal deliveries.   The latest pullback suggests those expansions were insufficient to relieve pressure on its core consumer unit.

Refunds come into focus

The pause has been most visible in customer refund requests. Some Lagos customers who posted on X stated they paid for cleaning or food services that were not delivered.

The company noted in the statement that 90% of refund requests have been resolved. “The remaining 10% are not a result of liquidity issues,” it noted. 

In an  earlier message sent to users in January, the company stated that refunds would be handled “in batches.” Its updated position characterises the delays as procedural rather than financial. Eden Life has yet to disclose the total number of affected customers. 

Kenya operations face uncertainty 

The pullback extends beyond Nigeria. Eden Life expanded into Kenya in 2022 by acquiring Lynk, a Nairobi-based platform that connects informal workers to jobs. The company said it also paused B2C services there.

“We have paused B2C services in Kenya while our B2B clients are currently supported through a partner-led model. We are in the process of securing capital to settle existing obligations and fund our restart,” the company said. “While this is taking longer than anticipated, it is a deliberate move to ensure that our next phase in Kenya is built on a much more sustainable foundation.”

In 2025, the company moved its Nairobi office from Westlands, according to people familiar with its operations. Around the same period, the Eden Life app experienced issues with new user registrations in Kenya, a hitch acknowledged by an Eden Life contact rep who spoke to TechCabal in a call. 

Two people close to its local operations say the signup function has been failing since 2025, preventing the platform from onboarding new customers.

As of 2026, LinkedIn profiles suggested that Eden Life operated with between 50 and 80 employees across Nigeria and Kenya. It is unclear how many employees currently remain.

For now, Eden Life is eyeing to raise capital to settle existing obligations and fund a restart in Kenya, acknowledging that the process has taken longer than expected in its statement to TechCabal. The company noted that the consumer business is deferred, not permanently shut down. 

“We believe this reintegration of B2C services is in the very near future,” it said.