The story of Laayo so far

Laayo is a food and grocery delivery app from Birtamod, Jhapa, run by Laayo Services Pvt. Ltd. This is the story of how it came to be what it is today, told in the order things happened.

It began with a simple gap#

In Birtamod, ordering food used to mean calling the shop, describing your house by the nearest landmark and hoping the order arrived hot. Restaurants made excellent food but had no easy way to reach people beyond their phone line and front door. The big delivery apps were focused on the capital.

Laayo started to close that gap at home. The idea was plain: let people order from the restaurants and shops they already love, and bring the order to their door with riders who know the town. We tell the longer version in Why we started Laayo in Birtamod and Damak.

Birtamod first#

Laayo’s first home was Birtamod, and our office is still there, at New Kanchanjunga Tole. Starting in one town meant we could learn quickly. We saw how people describe addresses by landmarks, how lunch and dinner peaks feel on the road, and how the monsoon changes everything about delivery.

From the start, Laayo used its own riders instead of handing delivery to someone else. That choice shaped a lot of what came later, from how we track rider locations to how we pay riders and partners.

Then Damak#

Once Birtamod was running well, Laayo opened in Damak, a short ride away. Damak brought new partners, new streets and the same lesson: a delivery service has to be built around how a town actually works. Today Laayo delivers in Birtamod, the towns around it in Central Jhapa, and Damak.

Building our own technology#

Very early, we decided to build and run Laayo’s technology ourselves: the customer app, the rider app, the partner app, the admin tools and the backend. Owning the stack lets a small team move quickly and fix problems the same day.

Over time we added a faster Go layer for the busiest parts of the app, realtime updates for order status, chat and store opening, and our own monitoring and crash reporting. The whole journey is in our five part series, starting with Laayo’s tech stack, part one: the foundation.

Payments built in#

Paying should be as easy as ordering. Laayo added E-Payment by QR, the Laayo wallet, and later gift cards that load into the wallet. Each step meant fewer cash hassles for customers and riders. See Paying with a QR inside the app and Gift cards and Send a Treat.

Laayo Plus#

For regular customers we introduced Laayo Plus, a monthly membership with delivery benefits and priority support. It rewards the people who order often and gives them a faster path to help. More in What Laayo Plus gives you.

Laayo Biz and Qora#

Working closely with restaurants showed us two more needs.

Restaurants wanted better tools to run the counter, the tables and the kitchen, so we built Laayo Biz, a point of sale that connects to the orders they receive on Laayo.

Many businesses wanted to accept QR payments without complicated setup, so in September 2026 we launched Qora, QR payment software for Nepali businesses. Qora never holds customer money; each merchant is paid directly by their own bank.

A new look#

In late September 2026, Laayo moved to a new wordmark: “la” in charcoal next to a slanted charcoal badge holding “ayo” in yellow. The app icon and every Laayo website now use the new mark. Read about it in What the Laayo name and logo look like.

Native apps and a new website#

In October 2026 we began rebuilding the customer app natively, in Swift for iPhone and Kotlin for Android, screen by screen, so nobody would be logged out along the way. The rider and partner apps continue on Flutter. We also started a new, faster website for browsing restaurants on the web. Details in Laayo’s tech stack, part four: going native.

This blog#

In October 2026 we opened this blog to explain how Laayo works, for customers, partners, riders, engineers and investors. The Investors page collects our thinking about the business.

What comes next#

We are working on Kathmandu, on more ways to help restaurant partners and on making every order faster and more reliable at home. We share plans, not promises, in What comes next for Laayo.

Quick answers#

Where did Laayo start?#

Laayo started in Birtamod, Jhapa, where the company is still based at New Kanchanjunga Tole.

When did Laayo get its new logo?#

Laayo moved to its new yellow and charcoal wordmark in late September 2026.

When was Qora launched?#

Qora, Laayo’s QR payment software for businesses, launched in September 2026.

Does Laayo build its own apps?#

Yes. Laayo designs, builds and runs its customer, rider and partner apps, its admin tools and its backend in-house.

Which towns does Laayo serve?#

Laayo serves Birtamod, the surrounding towns of Central Jhapa, and Damak. Kathmandu is next, with no date announced.