top of page

Chefz: Revolutionizing Food Delivery in Riyadh

Chefz, one of Riyadh's leading food delivery platforms, stands as a testament to PearlThoughts' expertise in transforming and scaling digital solutions. Our team took on the challenge of rebuilding this platform from the ground up, turning it into a powerhouse in the food delivery sector.

Key Achievements
 

  • Complete system overhaul in just 2 months

  • Rapid feature deployment with weekly value-added releases

  • Growth from 30 to 3,000 chefs in 5 years

  • Daily order value increase to 10,000 SAR

  • Successful acquisition by Jaz for $200 million

  • 500,000+ installs on Google Play Store

Challenge

Upon inheriting the Chefz codebase, we identified significant architectural limitations. Our analysis revealed that a complete rebuild was necessary to unlock the platform’s full potential while retaining critical legacy components.

Our Approach

1.Strategic Legacy Retention: 

​

  • Maintained Yii2 framework for API

  • Preserved MySQL database structure

  • Retained 1,000 legacy orders for historical integrity

​

2.Scalable Architecture:

  • Implemented stateless design to enable load balancing

  • Migrated to AWS RDS for enhanced database management

  • Utilized S3 for efficient image serving

  • Deployed Apache web servers for robust performance

​

3.Modernization Strategy:

​

  • Employed the Strangler Fig pattern to gradually replace legacy systems

  • Rebuilt Orders v2 with enhanced flexibility and streamlined workflows

  • Developed a proprietary task/delivery system, replacing Tookan

​

4.Expanded Ecosystem:

​

  • Extended API to support customer, chef, and delivery partner apps

  • Implemented features for customer loyalty and feedback capture

  • Introduced unique order customization capabilities

​

5.Quality Assurance and Continuous Improvement:

​

  • Supported by a dedicated QA team for proactive monitoring

  • Introduced API automation tests for reliability

  • Regular API version updates reflecting rapid prototyping



Results

Our efforts catalyzed Chefz’s exponential growth:

​

  • Chef network expanded 100-fold in 5 years

  • Substantial increase in daily order values

  • Platform’s market value soared, culminating in a $200 million acquisition

  • Achieved 500,000+ installs on Google Play Store

bottom of page