What comes next for Laayo
Our plans for what comes next, from deepening service in Birtamod and Damak to preparing for Kathmandu, exploring Laayo Supply and finishing the move to native apps. Plans, not promises.
People who follow Laayo often ask what we are working on next. This post is our honest answer. Everything here is a plan, and plans change as we learn. We will only share dates when we are confident in them.
1. Be excellent where we already are#
Our first priority has not changed: make Laayo genuinely excellent in Birtamod and Damak.
That means faster deliveries, mainly by cutting the time food waits at restaurants for a rider. It means food that arrives the way it left the kitchen, through better packaging and order checks with partners. It means payments that never leave anyone unsure, support that reaches a real person quickly and refunds that customers can follow step by step.
These are not new features. They are the basics done very well, and they are what earns a town’s trust. Everything else on this list depends on getting this right.
2. Finish the move to native apps#
We are rebuilding the customer app in Swift for iPhone and Kotlin for Android. Native apps open faster, scroll more smoothly and feel more at home on each phone. We are moving screen by screen so nobody is logged out or loses their cart along the way.
Many improvements described on this blog arrive with these new builds, including faster first opens, a simpler rating sheet, clearer refund timelines and a smoother QR payment flow. You can read about the approach in part four of our tech stack series.
3. Prepare for Kathmandu#
Bringing Laayo to Kathmandu is our main expansion plan. We are not sharing a date; we will announce it here when we are ready.
Kathmandu is a very different market from our home towns: bigger, busier and more competitive. We do not intend to arrive as a smaller copy of what is already there. We plan to bring what makes Laayo different: close relationships with partners, honest delivery estimates, transparent statements and payouts, and a product shaped by real local knowledge.
We will launch only when we are confident we can deliver the same standard of care there as at home.
4. Explore Laayo Supply#
Restaurants spend a lot of time buying supplies: rice, oil, flour, gas, packaging. We are exploring Laayo Supply, a way for restaurant partners to order kitchen supplies in the partner app, receive them the next morning before opening and pay from their next Laayo payout or by E-Payment.
If we build it, we would start with non-perishable items, where reliability is easiest to guarantee, and add fresh items only once supply is steady. Laayo Supply would make our partners’ days easier, give riders useful morning work and deepen our relationship with every restaurant we serve.
5. A stronger platform underneath#
Some of our plans are invisible to customers but important for growth.
We plan to adopt a hexagon-based map grid, known as H3, for smarter dispatch and pricing by area. We plan to move order events onto streams so different parts of the system can react to an order without slowing it down. And we plan to add a read copy of our database so reports and heavy queries never compete with live orders.
These changes prepare the platform to handle more towns and more orders without a matching rise in cost. We explain them at the end of part five of the tech stack series.
6. Grow Qora and Laayo Biz#
Qora and Laayo Biz already serve businesses in our towns and beyond. We plan to keep improving both, connect them more tightly with the marketplace, and offer them to more businesses as we expand. Every restaurant that uses Laayo for delivery, Laayo Biz for its counter and Qora for payments is a stronger partner for us. Read more in one company, four products.
How we decide#
When we choose between priorities, we ask three questions:
- Does it make life better for customers, partners or riders in a way they will notice?
- Does it strengthen the trust that keeps people with us?
- Can a small team build it well and keep it running?
If the answer to all three is yes, it goes on the list. If not, it waits.
We will keep sharing progress on this blog, including what goes well and what takes longer than planned. If you would like to talk to us about any of this, visit our investors page.
