Catering orders over WhatsApp, deposits over promises, and the weekend rush nobody writes down.
Ingest is order and catering software for restaurants that take bookings on WhatsApp. Every order is a record with the customer, dishes, delivery time and deposit status, so Ingest can confirm the order, update the customer when it leaves the kitchen, and bring back the corporate clients who ordered once and went quiet.
Join the waitlistIngest is in closed beta — join the waitlist and we’ll email your invite when the next batch opens.
The problem restaurants know
Sound familiar? None of this is a discipline problem. It's a tools problem.
The deposit that never arrives
A company orders 150 packed lunches for Friday. You buy the chicken on Tuesday on faith. Thursday evening, no deposit. Friday morning, "sorry, the event moved." You're left with 150 packs of jollof and a supplier bill.
The order details scattered in chats
The client said "no peanuts in 20 of them" — was that in the WhatsApp chat or the phone call? Your kitchen prepares 150 identical packs. The one person with a nut allergy gets the wrong box, and their HR department calls you on Monday.
The regular who quietly left
The law firm on the third floor ordered lunch every Tuesday for a year. It's been five weeks. You never noticed — until you saw their intern picking up food from the new place downstairs.
What Ingest does for restaurants
Not just replies — proactive outreach, at the right time, in the right tone.
The order that confirms itself
A client messages a catering request. Ingest captures it as an order — headcount, menu, allergies flagged, delivery time — and sends a confirmation with a 50% deposit link via mobile money. The kitchen starts when the deposit lands, not when the client gets around to it. The remaining balance gets its payment link on delivery day.
The delivery that updates itself
Friday, 11:30 AM. Ingest messages the client: "Your 150 packs are packed and the driver has left — ETA 12:15." When the driver marks delivered, the balance invoice goes out automatically. Nobody calls asking "where is the food?" — the answer arrives before the question.
The client who comes back
The law firm has been quiet for five weeks. Ingest sends their office manager a warm WhatsApp: “We noticed it's been a while — Tuesday's special is back, and your usual order is one tap away.” She replies with the standing order. Your Tuesday revenue is back, and nobody made an awkward sales call.
Team memory
Your kitchen lead and your delivery driver see the same order record: menu, allergens, headcount changes logged with timestamps, deposit status, and the delivery address with a landmark. When the client adds “40 more packs, no spice in 15” at 9 PM the night before, everyone sees it — nobody scribbles it on a receipt.
“We do events and office catering. Before Ingest, confirming an order meant ten back-and-forth messages and hoping the deposit came. Now the order, the deposit link, the kitchen sheet, and the delivery update all run from one record — and my repeat clients get a nudge before they drift away.”
Cook the food. Let Ingest run the order book.
Bring your order history — even if it's just WhatsApp screenshots.
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