The digitalisation of Indonesia’s F&B is unprecedented. Many startups have emerged to revolutionise the industry and trigger attractive growth opportunities for F&B businesses. The overall F&B market is growing moderately at a CAGR of 3.2 per cent. Yet, sales via F&B E-commerce have reached almost IDR3 trillion (US$212 million) in 2019, which is an astonishing growth with 38.2 per cent CAGR in the past six years.

This shows the robust shift and strong acceptance of digital platforms among Indonesian consumers. YCP Solidiance’s latest forecast estimate that F&B e-commerce sales would reach IDR15 trillion (US$1 billion) by 2024.

Given the prolonged COVID-19 social restrictions, those figures are highly achievable as the market has become heavily reliant on online delivery services to mitigate health and safety concerns. However, online delivery is only one piece of the puzzle in Indonesia’s digital F&B landscape.

Seven major trends in digital F&B

The current state of digital F&B in Indonesia can be reflected by the following  trends:

Dominance of the super-apps in delivery service, online order, and fintech

The super-apps have branched out from their ride-hailing origins to capture the three major roles. GoFood and GrabFood’s rise to prominence in Indonesia has been compelling.

Also Read: Food Market Hub lands US$4M Series A to grow its cloud-based F&B management biz beyond Malaysia

Nielsen reported that the super-apps have dominated the online delivery scene, with a usage share of up to 85 per cent, decimating other platforms such as restaurant hotlines, mobile applications, and websites.

The rise of fintech

Many payment options now need to be catered by F&B establishments, which drives the demand for payment gateway services. Ipsos reported that GoPay is currently the leading digital wallet with 54 per cent loyalty rating, which is surprising as GoPay has been toning down their promotions.

This trend showcases that the battle in fintech that has reached organic retention. Meanwhile, the likes of Ovo, Dana, and LinkAja have loyalty ratings of 29 per cent, 11 per cent, and 6 per cent, respectively.

Future integration between online delivery and PoS terminal

Currently, there is limited integration between online delivery and PoS terminal. Most F&B enterprises still record their online transaction manually to their PoS system.

With the recent acquisition of MOKA by Gojek, connectivity between online delivery service and PoS terminal appears to be on the horizon. Prior to that, Pawoon has made the first move for integration by connecting transactions from GrabFood into its system.

Food is now more social than ever

Customer engagement players allow F&B enterprises to extend their digital marketing by providing an avenue for public reviews, voucher distributions, promotions, table reservations, etcetera.

Also Read: ‘Underdeveloped payment infrastructure holding e-commerce in Indonesia’

Most players present themselves as foodie apps (i.e. Zomato, Qraved, Pergikuliner), travel apps (i.e. Tripadvisor, TravelokaEats) or retention platforms (i.e. Tada). The social media and tech giants (i.e. Instagram, Facebook, Google Reviews) are also in the game.

PoS terminal making moves toward customer engagement via CRM feature

PoS terminal players have been upping up their game in customer engagement with the incorporation of centralised customer relationship management (CRM).

This built-in feature enables display of customer reviews, automated or personalised response from enterprises, provision of discounts and promotions for customer retention.

Super-apps looking to complete the ecosystem with entry to produce marketplace

In 2018, Grab and HappyFresh sealed a partnership to launch GrabFresh, an in-app grocery platform. gojek’s GoShop service also provides connectivity to local produce sellers. This move by super-apps is a step towards a holistic journey from grocer-to-kitchen-to-table.

Cloud kitchen’s growing popularity among restaurants

Growth for F&B enterprises tend to be curbed by limited capital, hindering them to quickly expand to other regions. Cloud kitchen solves this issue by giving restaurants access to prime locations at a fractional cost as they provide shared kitchen space and workforce, with no dining area. Several players are currently in this role, including GoFood and GrabFood.

How innovation help digitalise F&B

With fierce competition in the digital F&B battlefield, we recommend for new entrants to innovate on roles where the first-mover advantage is more likely. Generally, it is better to avoid roles where market adoption is sluggish compared to the pace of product evolution.

Also Read: Mosaic Solutions raises US$1.5M to provide data analytics, inventory management solutions to SEA’s F&B industry

Areas where both aspects are moving rapidly should also be avoided as fast technological advancement will make your innovation more vulnerable to duplication by other players. These conditions provide little chance of long-term success, especially for companies with limited resources. For instance, new entrants can try innovating on the following gaps:

Digital procurement solution not yet available

Digital procurement solution can potentially be achieved through collaboration with online produce marketplace. Currently, these players are focused on B2C segments. Most of them act as an interface for farmers (e.g. TaniHub, Sayurbox, Tanijoy).

In contrast, HappyFresh is positioned as an interface for modern markets. For the prior model, there are complex issues at the agriculture level, particularly the reliance of farmers on traditional middlemen and wet markets.

Insight and advisory solution not yet available

Given that most F&B enterprises are SMEs, many business leaders make decisions in traditional, non-data driven manners. Despite sales performance data from PoS terminals, not everyone can extract insights and synthesise actionable strategies.

An ‘insight and advisory’ role can be created to help F&B businesses navigate growth.

Minimal integration encompassing all roles and features

There is little connectivity across digital roles. The major pain point for enterprises is in extracting data from delivery services, which is a non-existent feature in most PoS terminals. Current players only provide exclusive integration. With COVID-19 social restrictions, the data gap widens as the key to customer understanding lies in the data collected by delivery service players.

Reluctance of top-tier F&B establishments to join the online delivery ecosystem

There is an identified prestige and visibility element that is being maintained by top-tier F&B restaurants, which is not addressed by the super-apps as they play within the mass market.

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Vietnamese ride-hailing startup Be Group has joined hands with Vietnam Prosperity Bank (VPBank) to roll out the digital bank Cake, according to a DealstreetAsia report.

Similar to a traditional bank, digital banks provide banking services, including account opening, money transfer and debit card issuance, among others.

Cake claims its online know-your-customer (KYC) system would enable users to utilise digital signatures to verify their transactions.

With services hosted on the Be app through VPBank’s digital banking license, Be claims Cake will have access to over 10 million customers, nearly a third of the Vietnamese ride-hailing market.

“Be Group understands that e-banking will not simply stop at a new payment method but it will also encompass a new technology that can be integrated into our every day lives through essential devices,” said Nguyen Hoang, CEO of Be Group.

Also Read: Meet Lucy, the digital bank platform that aims to empower female entrepreneurs

Founded in 2018, Be Group operates a suite of transportation services, from ride-hailing to delivery. The Saigon-headquartered startup claims that as of November 2020, it has over nine million app downloads and grown its fleet to 100,000 drivers.

In the first half of 2019, it was reported that Be had achieved 16 per cent market share, making it the second-largest ride-hailing firm in Vietnam after Grab.

The rise of digital banks within Vietnam should come as no surprise. Despite a smartphone penetration rate of 45 per cent of the total population, only 30 per cent were served by the financial sector, representing an untapped market for digital banks.

A similar trend has been observed in other countries within the region. In December 2020, Singapore awarded four digital bank licenses to a slew of corporations, including a consortium comprising of Grab and local telco Singtel.

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Ever been entrusted with the thankless task of procuring corporate merchandise such as mugs and hoodies for your company?

Anyone who has undertaken this task can testify to the challenges of procuring these products. Besides having to manually source for suppliers, one has to surrender the final design of the product to the supplier too — never a good idea, given the multiple disagreements that would occur.

With poor product quality, lack of price transparency and inconvenience stemming from the slow turnaround, the corporate world is frustrated with the traditional players operating in this segment. They desperately need someone to address their grievances.

Enter Boxaroo. The online platform wants to disrupt the US$23 billion global promotional products industry by changing how companies can procure their corporate merchandise.

Also Read: How startups can improve customer engagement and grow LTV ratio

Launched in August 2020 by Nikhil Charan and Robert Rajeswaran, Boxaroo automates and simplifies the merchandise procurement process through a self-serve platform that allows users to live-preview their customised orders while designing them.

Users can choose from a variety of products ranging from apparels and stationary to drinkware and eco-friendly products, such as a reusable cutlery set.

How it works

Upon payment, Boxaroo assigns a dedicated account manager to each order. Acting as a direct line of communication between Boxaroo and its clients, the account manager is responsible for the end-to-end process of the order, right until the successful delivery of it.

Simultaneously, the design created is sent to Boxaroo’s team, where a designer will evaluate factors such as colours, alignment and suitability for print. Should an edit be required, relevant corrections will be made and mockups are shared with the client through the account manager.

After reaching out to the client and getting approval on mockups and production timelines, the account manager will then contact suppliers and give the green light for production.

Boxaroo claims cancellations are permitted before production, and orders are usually delivered within two to four weeks.

Charan shared with e27 that Boxaroo places a huge emphasis on quality and sources only high-quality products from both branded and non-branded manufacturers worldwide. After all, while merchandises are a great marketing tool, they only work if recipients find a use for them.

Within six months of starting up, the platform has managed to partner with many international brands, including Netflix and Paypal, to provide branded merchandise to both employees and customers.

Challenges faced

However, Charan cautioned the journey has been far from smooth and the startup did encounter challenges along the way.

“The complexity of this industry was the biggest challenge. There’s a wide variety of product categories within the corporate merchandise industry. Furthermore, there’s a wide range of printing and decorating methods for each product, each with its own limitations,” shared Charan, formerly Head of Partnerships (APAC), Samsung.

Adopting the ‘first-principles approach’ famously embodied by Elon Musk — where complicated issues are reverse-engineered into basic elements and rethought from the ground up — Charan was able to identify existing gaps in procurement processes and address these challenges.

Also Read: 10 principles of great strategy inspired by design thinking

By challenging manufacturing and production partners to think differently, he was able to streamline the process to ensure a better experience for users.

When quizzed on the key factors in their approach which saw them secure deals with household brands, Charan shared it was about “providing an exceptional customer experience”.

“Rajeswaran and I had always set out to avoid a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to partnerships. We work closely with individual brands to understand their problem and engages a team of designers to help personalise each product,” explained Charan.

Besides, the team designs a “digital closet” for international companies, enabling common visibility and knowledge of designs for teams located across the region.

The future of corporate products

With lockdowns still in place in many parts of the world and remote working remaining the preferred method of working, Charan foresees new trends developing within the corporate merchandise industry.

“We think large-scale events will come back at some point, but there will be an increasing number of virtual events, and if you’re attending them, you can now expect to receive a ‘swag bag’ by post,” he remarked.

The co-founder also noticed organisations are placing an increased emphasis on employee wellness, with one of its clients replacing its common pantry utensils with eco-friendly and reusable cutlery kits and mugs for each employee.

With the shift to a hybrid workplace, the common theme among HR professionals has been the effect it has on culture building. Companies have resorted to plugging the “culture gap” by turning to corporate merchandising to build employee engagement and sustain culture.

Also Read: Managing the millennial workforce over coffee and culture

“Our bigger clients, who conduct a lot of workplace research, have plenty of evidence to show that merchandise helps individuals cultivate a sense of loyalty and connectedness to the brand and their teammates,” Charan shared.

As for expansion plans, Charan said that while Boxaroo serves clients across Asia Pacific, the platform is looking to increase its local presence in the region.

Opining that the industry remains complex with “endless options” to create unique corporate products, he said the platform will continue to innovate in the areas of technology, logistics and its product offerings.

Focusing on the fundamentals

Bootstrapped so far, Boxaroo will consider fundraising as it seeks to expand its operations within the region. However, Charan stressed they would only do it “for the right reasons and at the right time”.

For now, the team is focused on changing current processes and mindsets within the industry to improve the experience of acquiring corporate merchandise.

Remarking that this involves “a fair bit of trial-and-error”, Charan is confident that by adopting a customer-centric mindset, Boxaroo would be able to “build a product that customers want.” Only then, will he entertain the thought of fundraising.

“Once we’re ready to grow the business, we will certainly look at the possibility of raising funds,” he signed off.

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Image Credit: Boxaroo

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Vietnam-based payments app Momo has raised an undisclosed amount in Series D financing, says a DealStreetAsia report.

The round was co-led by Warburg Princus, which had led Momo’s Series C round in 2019, and Silicon Valley-based VC firm Goodwater Capital.

They were joined by new backers Kora Management and Macquarie Capital, as well as existing shareholders Affirma Capital and Tybourne Capital Management.

Also Read: Vietnamese e-wallet service MoMo raises Series C funding led by Warburg Pincus

While the size of the investment was not disclosed, CEO Pham Thanh Duc told DSA that the new round is higher than its Series C funding round. DealStreetAsia and Crunchbase have pegged the size of the fresh round at over US$100 million.

The fresh funds will be used to drive Momo’s ambition of becoming a super-app and kickstart its own investment arm, called Innovation Ventures, to “back local startups that can be integrated into Momo’s app“.

Founded in 2007, Momo offers mobile, electronic wallet and payment apps for iOS and Android devices. Its range of products include cash transfers, mobile phone recharges personal loans and services, such as software license and online game cards.

The company has partnered with 24 domestic banks and foreign payment networks, including JCB, MasterCard, and Visa.

As of now, Momo has over 10,000 partners across verticals, such as consumer finance, insurance, money transfers, utility payments, entertainment, e-commerce, shopping, transportation, and F&B.

According to a recent report, Momo was Vietnam’s most-downloaded e-wallet app in 2018, and it currently has over 10 million users.

Vietnam’s digital payments vertical, especially contactless payments, has witnessed a stupendous growth following the onset of COVID-19.

Although cash-on-delivery has been the most popular mode of purchase in Vietnam, the trend is seeing a big shift thanks to the behavioural change forced by the pandemic.

Also Read: News Roundup: Vietnam’s Finhay raises funding; DailySocial launches online incubator

Other major companies operating in the contactless payments space in Vietnam are gojek, Finhay, Payoo, Moca, and SenPay.

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From South Korea to Tokyo and the UK to the USA — as we enter a new year, the world continues to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses across Asia and all over the world are still faced with movement restrictions, concerns of the safety and well-being and an extremely volatile and unstable economy.

Unfortunately, the pandemic is not the only challenge that the world faces today. According to a report by Asian Development Bank, climate change, the rapid depletion of natural resources, and worsening environmental degradation are markedly increasing the vulnerability of populations that are least able to adapt. This is particularly true for the APAC — between the years 2000 and 2018, around 84% of the 206 million people affected by weather and other disasters globally on average each year were from the region.

These issues are not new but they are definitely more urgent now. Innovative solutions are becoming a necessity and this is where technology can help. Innovations in technology can help us build a better ecosystem and a better tomorrow. Tech might not be the only answer to these social problems, but it is definitely an important part of the solution. From renewable energies to helping people adopt smarter lifestyles and helping harness natural renewable resources — tech innovations can help do a lot.

Encouraging innovators from all walks to work towards sustainability and social connectivity

Organised by the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) and supported by the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP), the first-ever City I&T Grand Challenge (the Grand Challenge) was recently launched, with the theme of the competition as “Innovating for Hong Kong’s New Normal”. This is in line with ITC’s mission to spearhead Hong Kong’s drive to become a world-class, knowledge-based economy by enhancing the country’s technological infrastructure to facilitate the development of innovation and technology (I&T) activities, hence building a smarter city. Set up by the Hong Kong Government in 2001, ITC aims to foster the development of I&T in the city. HKSTP, a statutory body that houses a thriving I&T ecosystem comprising Hong Kong Science Park, InnoCentre and Industrial Estates in Hong Kong, is also committed to creating avenues for best-of-breed innovations.

Also read: How Boxaroo aims to change the way companies purchase their corporate merchandise

Open for primary and secondary school students, local and non-local tertiary students, technology enterprises, R&D teams as well as entrepreneurs, the Grand Challenge invites participants from all walks to put forward I&T solutions focusing on these two crucial issues- environmental sustainability and social connectivity. For “environmental sustainability”, two focus points include disposable plastic tableware and household food waste, whereas for “social connectivity”, two main areas are physical and social well-being of senior citizens and children under the new normal of social distancing and distant learning.

A host of workshops, seminars and training activities will also be organised to introduce knowledge on technologies and entrepreneurship as well as topical daily life issues. Winners of the University and Open categories will have a chance to receive R&D resources and training for refining their I&T solutions for trying at a designated venue, such as a government department or a public organisation.

Solving the sustainability and social connectivity challenges in a collaborative approach

Every year, 8 million metric tons of plastics enter the oceans and this is in addition to the estimated 150 million metric tons that are already circulating our marine environments. Furthermore, the trash dumped in landfills releases methane gas — open landfills have been found to represent 91% of all landfill methane emissions. The burning of large, open piles of trash in various parts of the world also emits dangerous levels of carbon dioxide heating up our planet.

While people are now more aware of social-distancing with an increase in takeaway orders, the solid waste problem becomes a pressing environmental issue. The Grand Challenge hopes to look for some innovative solutions that cause a behavioural change in using single-use plastic utensils and containers and handling food waste.

If the past year has taught us anything, we need to be prepared to protect the most vulnerable group of people in times of crisis and epidemics. According to a survey conducted in China during the pandemic, 22.3% of adolescents had scores indicative of clinical depressive symptoms, which was higher than the 13.2% regular estimate. Meanwhile, older people are experiencing adverse effects from the pandemic, including concerns about access to care and disruptions to daily routines, difficulty in adapting to technologies like telemedicine, and concerns that isolation would exacerbate existing mental health conditions.

In view of this, the Grand Challenge is also looking for proposals that can help children maintain healthy social connections with classes being conducted virtually, and for elderly and disabled people to obtain social and emotional support under the social-distancing measures.

Also read: Momo secures Series D to become Vietnam’s next super-app; plans to launch new startup fund

For future-proofing the world, we not only need tech innovations for sustainability but better social connectivity is also equally important. It is important to understand that moving forward, it cannot just be about solving these problems but there has to be a keen focus on rendering a livable world for future generations. Hence, when it comes to addressing these multifaceted challenges, a collaborative approach is the key. Only with all sectors coming together and working hand-in-hand towards sustainability and better connectivity can help build an ecosystem that contributes towards a resilient, cleaner and happier future.

“Everyone has the potential to be an innovator to shape the future. The City I&T Grand Challenge offers an invaluable opportunity for the public to apply creativity and develop smart solutions catering to the new normal under the epidemic for the benefit of the community,” said Albert Wong, Chief Executive Officer of HKSTP.

With the goal of helping the world move forward and build a better, more sustainable and well-connected future by leveraging technology-based disruptions and innovations, the time is ripe for innovative entrepreneurs of all ages to share their ideas at the Grand Challenge and create the road to the future for the “next normal”.

Overseas students and startups are welcome to participate, The City I&T Grand Challenge is open for application till 24th April 2021 here.

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Photos by Oleg Magni and Juan Pablo Serrano Arenas from Pexels

This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 
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