Apply for pilot

Pilot open · Built in Nairobi

The operating system for African restaurants.

Bookings, M-Pesa deposits, email confirmations, guest CRM, kitchen display — one tab open during service instead of seven.

Pilot offer — first 50 get 2 months free + founder onboarding

Apply for the pilot See it in action

Free for 2 monthsNo credit cardYour data exportableCancel anytime

The Karamu restaurant dashboard mid-service: today’s service timeline, live covers and booking statuses at a glance on one screen.

The 90-second story

Watch a booking become a seated table.

010:00

Tap the link.

Wanjiru opens your booking link from WhatsApp — your cover, your hours, tonight’s real availability. No app to install.

020:40

Pay the deposit.

She picks 19:00 for four and pays KES 800 on M-Pesa — one STK push, one PIN. The money lands in your till, never ours.

030:55

Your dashboard chimes.

A new booking drops in — party of four, 19:00, peanut allergy flagged, auto-confirmed. Covers for tonight tick up.

041:10

She gets the confirmation.

A confirmation lands in her inbox: table for four, Friday 19:00. No account, no call, no spreadsheet on your side.

051:20

Friday: seated.

T-04 flips to seated on your floor and the night runs itself. The whole loop took ninety seconds and zero phone calls.

K

The Karamu team
Built in Nairobi

Nairobi, Kenya

A note from the team

Restaurants here lose Friday after Friday to no-shows, missed phone bookings and an M-Pesa till that doesn’t talk to anything. OpenTable was never built for this market, and the local tools are either too basic or made for one big chain. So we’re building the one that fits.

We’re onboarding the first 50 pilot restaurants ourselves — on the phone, in your venue, at the rhythm you can handle. Reply to our email and you get a founder, not a ticket queue.

Apply for the pilot contact@getkaramu.com

Why not just…

Built for the way African restaurants actually run.

Option 1

A WhatsApp link

You can’t see who’s coming tonight — no deposits, no reminders, no history.

Option 2

A paper book

Lost bookings, double-booked tables, no way to text a reminder when you’re slammed.

Option 3

OpenTable / Resy

~$249/mo plus a cut of every cover. No M-Pesa. Card-only deposits. Built for New York, not Nairobi.

The Karamu way

Karamu

From KES 9,900/mo, flat. No commission per cover, ever. M-Pesa native. Deposits settle to your till — we never hold your money.

One platform · every part of service

From the booking link to the kitchen pass.

Restaurant dashboard

Today’s service in one swimlane.

Tap to seat. Timeline and floor plan in sync. See VIPs, allergies and walk-ins before they walk in.

M-Pesa native

Deposits land in your till. Not ours.

Paystack sub-account model — we record every transaction, never hold the money.

Guest booking page

The page diners see, branded as yours.

Mobile-first. No app install. WhatsApp share preview. Installable PWA.

WhatsApp + SMS

Confirmations on the channels they use.

In build · ships Q4

Booking, reminder and deposit receipt — automatic. Email carries them today; WhatsApp and SMS switch on with template approval.

Front of House

Tablet for the host stand.

In build · ships Q4

Spatial floor plan. Walk-in flow. Pre-service brief. Live table status.

Kitchen display + QR ordering

Big-screen tickets for the pass. QR menu for the table.

Per-station tickets with age timers. The 86 board syncs to the diner’s phone when a dish sells out.

Honest pricing

Free for 2 months. Then one fair price.

No commission per cover, ever. No setup fees. No annual contract. Cancel anytime and keep your guest data.

See full pricing Talk to a founder

After pilot

Pro · most restaurants

Flat fee

KES 19,900/mo

Per restaurant · billed monthly · M-Pesa or card

Unlimited covers

Unlimited bookings · deposits

Email confirmations · branded

Guest CRM + segments

Staff roles & permissions

~85% less than OpenTable for a Nairobi restaurant doing 500 covers/week. Illustrative — see the maths on the pricing page.

What’s shipping when

Honest roadmap. No vapourware.

Shipping now · MVP

Q3 2026

Booking page

M-Pesa deposits

Email confirmations & reminders

Floor plan & timeline

Guest CRM

Analytics

QR menu & ordering

Kitchen display (KDS)

Restaurant directory

Building · V2

Q4 2026

WhatsApp + SMS confirmations

Front of house tablet

Server roster

Branded subdomain

On the roadmap · V3

2027

Diner search & discovery

Loyalty + reviews

Bulk WhatsApp campaigns

POS integrations

Native iOS + Android

How it works · 4 steps

From “we should try this” to “we run on this.”

No sales calls. No long contracts. From application to first booking in about a week.

01

Apply for the pilot

Send your restaurant details. We usually reply within a few hours — always within 24h — with next steps and a time to talk.

~ 2 minutes

02

We set you up together

A 1-on-1 call. We add your tables, hours, menu and booking rules. About 30 minutes.

~ 30 minutes

03

Share your booking link

getkaramu.com/book/your-restaurant. Drop it on WhatsApp, Google, Instagram. Deposits go live once we’ve verified your payout account.

Same day

04

Run service

Timeline, walk-ins, M-Pesa deposits, email reminders. We’re on the line if you need us.

Tonight

Start with step 1

Frequently asked

Honest answers to the awkward questions.

The ones every owner asks before signing up. Anything not here? Email the founder.

What happens after the 2 free months?

You pick: continue on Lite (KES 9,900/mo) or Pro (KES 19,900/mo), or cancel. No auto-billing tricks — we write to you before your two months are up, so you decide consciously. If you leave, your data exports as CSV.

Do you take a cut of my bookings or M-Pesa deposits?

No. Never. Deposits settle directly into your till via a Paystack sub-account. Karamu never holds guest funds and never takes a percentage. One flat subscription — that is the whole business model.

Can I export my guest data if I leave?

Yes — full CSV export of every guest and booking, plus your revenue reports. Your data is yours. We earn the renewal each month by being worth more than what you pay.

What if my staff don’t speak English?

Karamu is in English today, and every screen is built to need as little reading as possible — colour-coded statuses, big touch targets, short labels. Swahili for the host stand and kitchen display is on the roadmap, and pilot restaurants choose what we translate first.

Does it work with my existing M-Pesa Till?

Yes. We connect via Paystack sub-account to your existing till — the same till number you use today. No new merchant agreement. A bank account works as a fallback.

What if I lose internet during service?

Your booking page never goes down with your Wi-Fi — it’s hosted by us, so guests keep booking and get their confirmations even while your venue is offline. The dashboard and kitchen screens need a connection today (a phone hotspot works fine); offline caching for in-venue screens is on the roadmap.

I already keep bookings in a paper book or Google Sheet — can you import them?

Yes. During onboarding we migrate up to 500 existing bookings plus your guest list, free. Beyond that we charge fair time — usually no extra cost.

How much does this cost compared to what we use now?

Most pilots replace 3–5 tools: a paper book, WhatsApp templates, an Excel guest list, separate Till reporting, a no-show spreadsheet. Karamu is usually cheaper — and saves staff time worth multiples of that.

Free during pilot · cancel anytime

Ready to fill more tables?

We’re onboarding the first 50 pilot restaurants — personally, on the phone and in your venue. Tonight’s service can run on Karamu.

Free for the first 2 monthsCancel anytimeWe bring your bookings across

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