EatOkra Reaches 1M Users Connecting 23K Black-Owned Restaurants + Three African Startups Reshape Mobility, Fashion, and HR
Black veteran-founded platform expands to London and Toronto, wins James Beard Impact Award. Vinlogs fights vehicle fraud, Cedisaver modernizes Ghana's fashion market | Friday, January 9, 2026
Two stories define how Black and African entrepreneurs are building infrastructure to solve market failures.
EatOkra, the mobile app co-founded by Army and Air Force veteran Anthony Edwards and his wife Janique Edwards in 2016, now connects nearly 1 million users with 23,000 Black-owned food businesses across the U.S. and internationally in London and Toronto—earning Anthony the James Beard Foundation’s inaugural Impact Award and an Apple App Store Developer Award.
Edwards and his wife bootstrapped the platform from 2016 to nearly 1 million users—proving that mission-driven products with clear value propositions (help customers support Black businesses) can scale through community adoption alone.
Meanwhile, three emerging African startups are reshaping mobility (Vinlogs’ blockchain-secured vehicle verification), fashion e-commerce (Cedisaver’s aggregation of informal Ghana sellers), and HR management (WorkFlowsHR’s payroll automation for Nigerian SMEs)—demonstrating that Africa’s next wave of tech founders is solving local infrastructure gaps rather than copying Silicon Valley playbooks.
EatOkra Reaches 1M Users—Black Veteran-Founded Platform Connects 23K Restaurants, Wins James Beard Impact Award
Anthony Edwards, an Army and Air Force veteran and 2014 Fordham University computer science graduate, received the James Beard Foundation’s inaugural Impact Award in 2025 for co-founding EatOkra, a mobile app and online platform that connects nearly 1 million users with 23,000 Black-owned food businesses from Brooklyn to California, with expanding international presence in London and Toronto.
Edwards also received an Apple App Store Developer Award, making him “kind of one of one” with hardware from both Apple and the James Beard Foundation—a unique intersection of technology and culinary impact.
The platform
Launched in 2016 with his wife Janique Edwards, EatOkra helps customers discover and support Black-owned restaurants, food trucks, bakeries, and culinary businesses.
The platform highlights culinary creatives’ stories and offers local guides through its blog, The Roux.
“It was kind of our path to activism,” Edwards said. “To help these restaurants survive, help tell their stories, help champion the work that they’re doing in their community.”
EatOkra didn’t build another Yelp—it built Black-owned restaurant discovery.
Vinlogs didn’t copy Carfax—it added blockchain and AI for emerging markets. Cedisaver didn’t replicate Amazon—it aggregated informal sellers.
WorkFlowsHR didn’t clone Gusto—it built Nigeria-compliant payroll for $0.35 per user.
The problem EatOkra solves
Black-owned food businesses often operate with limited marketing budgets, lacking visibility in crowded restaurant markets dominated by platforms (Yelp, Google Maps, OpenTable) that prioritize paid advertising and high review volumes.
EatOkra creates dedicated discovery infrastructure for Black-owned businesses, ensuring they appear in searches from customers actively seeking to support them.
The platform addresses three gaps simultaneously:
Discovery — Customers who want to support Black-owned businesses don’t know where to find them
Marketing — Black restaurant owners lack budgets to compete on paid advertising platforms
Community storytelling — Culinary creators’ stories (family recipes, neighborhood impact, cultural heritage) go untold in traditional restaurant review platforms
