Asia Partners, a Singapore-based growth equity investment firm, has made the final close of its inaugural fund at US$384 million in commitments.

The Limited Partners in the fund include institutional investors, family offices, corporations, and individual investors across six continents. The US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and the Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) from Germany are among its LPs.

Also Read: Sea Group’s venture fund to invest US$1B in tech startups

The VC firm has already invested more than US$90 million across its first three investments, which collectively have operations across every major economy in Southeast Asia.

Asia Partners has six co-founders, namely Jill Cheong Hsi Min, Pitra Ciputra Harun, Nicholas Avinash Nash, Oliver Minho Rippel, Kien Nguyen, and Vorapol Supanusonti.

We have reached out to Nash for more details. This article will be updated as soon we hear from him.

The inaugural fund is focused on the intersection of three key themes:

1- The long-term growth potential of Southeast Asia, a region with almost 10 per cent of the world’s population.

2- The rapid growth of innovative technology and technology-enabled businesses in the region, many of which are platforms with pan-regional or global aspirations.

3-The scarcity of growth equity capital for these companies, particularly in the US$20 million to US$100 million investment size range, often described as the ‘Series C/D gap’ between early-stage VC and the public capital markets.

“At Asia Partners, we believe deeply in the potential for growth equity to accelerate economic growth throughout Southeast Asia,” said Rippel, a Partner of the firm and a member of the Investment Committee. “We believe the decade ahead will be a golden age of entrepreneurship and innovation for Southeast Asia, and we are deeply focused on accelerating that progress.”

Also Read: Meet these 5 verified investors that are ready to connect with you today

The Asia Partners Advisory Board is chaired by Hsieh Fu Hua, former CEO of the Singapore Exchange. He now chairs a number of organisations including the Grab-SingTel digital bank that is being launched.

“Southeast Asia is an increasingly strategic region for global investors, driven both by rising affluence and by the increasing digitisation of daily life,” said Hsieh. “Almost every sector of our economies has the potential to be transformed by technology.”

“Asia Partners is deeply committed to supporting the growth of Southeast Asia’s next generation of entrepreneurs,” said Nash, Managing Partner and a member of the Investment Committee. “We look forward to continuing our investment program and to applying our co-founding team’s and Advisory Board’s collective experience to helping our companies grow, both geographically and strategically.”

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Symbo Platform Holdings, a Singapore-based insurtech platform, has raised US$9.4 million in a Series A funding round, led by CreditEase fintech investment fund.

The round also saw participation from San Francisco-based investment firm Think Investments, along with follow-on investment from existing investors and VC firms Integra Partners, Insignia Ventures, and AJ Capital.

The company said in a statement that it will use the fresh funds to bolster its core technology and hire for roles across tech, product and leadership in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

A large proportion of the money has also been earmarked for investment into Symbo’s Indian affiliate, with the intention of acquiring complete ownership of the business.

Additionally, the startup has also announced the acquisition of Vivant, a digital health platform based in Singapore, to deepen its client base by adding healthcare services into its platform.

Founded in 2017, Symbo supports agents, third-party administrators, brokers, corporates and insurers in the purchase, distribution and administration of insurance across India and Southeast Asia.

Also Read: Sunday raises US$9M to grow its AI-powered insurance business in Thailand, Indonesia

Symbo claims to have empowered over 80,000 agents and 45 technology licensing partners, supporting over US$100 million in annual GWP across India, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

“Digital-driven insurance and healthcare markets have huge potential, especially in India and Southeast Asia where customers are largely underserved, struggling to manage their insurance policies or ending up being sold generic and irrelevant products,” said Dennis Cong, Managing Partner of CreditEase fintech investment fund.

“Symbo is well-positioned to bring corporate and individual customers brand new experiences by providing customised products in a more accessible and convenient way. Insurtech and healthtech are key areas we are focusing on and expect Symbo to help more people get better protected,” he added.

“The deep knowledge of our investors in Asia will play a pivotal role in Symbo’s continued growth. With this significant investment, we will rapidly scale our leading technology platform to improve the delivery of insurance to millions of underinsured individuals and families across India and Southeast Asia,” Symbo co-founder Adrit Raha said.

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Image Credit: Symbo

 

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Sea Group’s venture fund to invest US$1bn in tech startups; Sea Capital will be headed by Chief Investment Officer David Ma; Ma is founder of Composite Capital Management, a Hong Kong-based global investment management firm which has recently been fully acquired by the group. More here

SEA-focused VC firm Asia Partners’s maiden fund hits US$384mn final close; Its LPs include the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and Germany’s DEG; It has already invested US$90mn+ across its first 3 investments, which collectively have operations across every major economy in SEA. More here

AirAsia rides into Singapore’s food delivery scene; According to a report, AirAsia Food will initially feature about 80 restaurants, including popular outlets like No Signboard Seafood, The Shepherd’s Pie; About 300 other restaurants are set to join the platform; At least 50% of Singaporeans eat out every day, with the country seeing a staggering 2.7mn active online food delivery users in 2020. More here

AppWorks raises US$114mn for fund III to back Series A and B startups in SEA, Taiwan; The new fund, with a target corpus of US$150mn, will seek to invest in AI, IoT, blockchain and decentralised finance; To date, AppWorks has invested in 395 startups. More here

Indonesian payments infra startup Xendit raises US$64.6mn in Accel-led Series B; Xendit is the first Indonesian company to go through Y Combinator’s accelerator programme; Xendit works with businesses of all sizes, processing more than 65mn transactions with US$6.5bn in payment value annually. More here

Indonesia’s Payfazz invests US$30mn into Singapore’s payments infra company Xfers; Both firms will be part of a newly-formed financial entity Fazz Financial Group (FFG); With this investment, Xfers will serve as the B2B arm of FFG — focussed on connecting external merchants to the payment infrastructure and user network amassed by the group. More here

Symbo secures US$9.4mn Series A, acquires digital health platform Vivant; Investors include CreditEase fintech investment fund (lead), Think Investments, Insignia Ventures, and AJ Capital; Symbo supports agents, third-party administrators, brokers, corporates and insurers in the purchase, distribution and administration of insurance across India and SEA. More here

Manabie secures US$3mn funding to bring Japan’s “high-quality” education to Vietnam; Investors are Do Ventures, Genesia Ventures and Chiba Dojo; This follows a US$4.8mn in April last year from Genesia Ventures (lead) and angels including professional soccer player Keisuke Honda; Besides a mobile app, Manabie also runs 5 learning centres in HCMC for students to receive guidance from individual counsellors. More here

Indonesian SaaS supply chain solutions startup Advotics raises US$2.75mn; Lead investor is East Ventures; Advotics provides end-to-end integrated supply chain solutions to a variety of clients ranging from SMEs to international companies; It has 9 SaaS products that provide solutions across production, warehousing, and distribution. More here

MyMy joins forces with Sukaniaga to bid for Malaysia digital banking license; This comes fresh off MyMy’s raising of US$2.4mn from Koperasi Tentera in Sep. 2020; As per BNM’s digital banking framework, 40 parties are reportedly eyeing the five licenses that will be issued by Q1, 2022. More here

Vietnamese online real estate startup Citics raises US$1mn; Investors are Vulpes Investment, Nextrans and TheVentures; Its first product is a Data-as-a-Service offer that banks use to validate the value of real estate employed as collateral for loans; Previously, the startup has raised US$700K in angel funding. More here

AI foodtech startup Easy Eat raises funding from ex-Uber CPO, Silicon Valley veterans; The money will be used to ramp up its operations in Malaysia, where it sees ‘great adoption and engagement’ for its products among F&B outlets; Easy Eat digitises all customer-facing interactions in restaurants — from browsing menu, ordering and tracking to payments. More here

Indonesia’s next-day grocery delivery startup Dropezy bags pre-seed funding; Investors include Taurus Ventures and Kopi Kenangan; Dropezy will also introduce a ‘pay later’ feature for its customers, as part of a company-wide strategy to scale up its business. More here

‘More conglomerates are embracing digital disruptions as they’re undergoing transitions between generations’: Emtek’s Andya Daniswara; Although Indonesia is constrained by fiscal limitation, the government has worked quickly to facilitate and regulate digital innovation happening in the country. More here

Autonomous drones developer for maritime logistics F-drones raises funding; Investors include Eastern Pacific Shipping (lead), Schulte Group, SEEDS Capital, EF; The firm’s mission to provide 24×7 commercial Beyond-Vision-Line-Of-Sight drone deliveries to ships; It is also developing a fully-electric and autonomous proprietary drone, capable of delivering 100kg payloads over 100km. More here

InVent invests in Datafarm, Swift Dynamics to accelerate growth of 5G in Thailand; Both the companies will play a crucial role in supporting corporates to strongly step into the fully-digitised 5G era; Datafarm is a cyber security company whereas Swift Dynamics is an IoT management provider which connects multiple devices of clients to the cloud. More here

Indonesia’s Eden Farm raises pre-Series A; Investors include Investible (lead), AC Ventures and Corin Capital; Eden Farm focuses connects farmers and communities upstream with F&B businesses, including restaurants, street food vendors and central markets; The capital will be used to expand operations to Java and Sumatra. More here

Neuron Mobility expands operations to Seoul; The Singapore-based e-scooter rental operator will deploy 2K Korean-spec e-scooters, which are fitted with the world’s first app-controlled helmet lock, which electronically secures a safety helmet for every e-scooter. More here

Digital wallets to overtake credit cards by 2024 amid e-commerce boom: report; Digital wallets such as GrabPay and DBS PayLah! are expected to account for 27% of the Singapore market by 2024, in line with global trends, said the report by Worldpay from FIS; BNPL is on track to grow to 13% of the online payment market in 2024, from just 3% currently. More here

Sea’s 2020 gross profit doubles on e-commerce, gaming boom; Total adjusted EBITDA stood at US$107mn, compared with a loss of US$178.6mn in 2019; Net loss, though, widened from US$1.46bn in 2019 to US$1.62bn in 2020; E-commerce proved to be the major growth propeller, with GAAP revenues for the unit grew 159.8% to US$2.2bn from last year. More here

Sea Group eyes LatAm e-commerce in potential battle royale against incumbents; Banking on the success of its hit game Free Fire, the group has seemingly set its sights on conquering LatAm’s e-commerce, beginning with Brazil and Mexico; Just over a week ago, Shopee launched with an app in Mexico. More here

Ant group boss tries to quell employee discontent with promise of eventual IPO; In a post on Ant’s internal website, Executive Chairman Eric Jing said the management is reviewing its remuneration and incentive policy and working on a “short-term liquidity solution” for employees that would take effect in April. More here

Ho Chi Minh City zeroes in on becoming regional AI hub; The city has set a target of concluding projects on building digital infrastructure and AI-related policies and establishing centres for AI research, technology transfer, and human resources between 2021 and 2025. More here

Indonesia’s e-commerce scene could change forever with the gojek-Tokopedia real; The e-commerce market has witnessed accelerated growth ever since pandemic restrictions charged up the demand for e-services; Indonesia has the fastest-growing internet economy in SEA, a region with nearly 650mn people and an expected internet economy revenue of US$300bn by 2025. More here

Amazon, Google vie for piece of India’s digital payments market; The companies are part of four consortia preparing to apply for licenses to operate retail payments and settlement systems in the country; The contest is fierce as regulator Reserve Bank of India is expected to give just one or two licenses. More here

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Neuron Mobility expands e-scooter service to Korea

The story: Neuron Mobility has announced it is launching a fleet of 2,000 e-scooters in the South Korean capital, Seoul. The company claims the move will create over 100 jobs in Korea and an additional 30 roles in their Singapore headquarters.

The scooters will be fitted with an app-controlled helmet lock – a critical differentiator in the Korean market where recently-updated laws require all riders to wear a helmet.

About Neuron Mobility: Founded in 2016, the Singapore-based operates its e-scooter business across ten cities in Australia and New Zealand. As part of its international plans, the company expanded its business to the United Kingdom last year.

In September 2020, the company announced it received an additional US$12 million in Series A funding co-led by Square Peg and GSR Ventures, bringing their total funding for the round to USD$30.5 million.

Vietcetera Media bags seed funding to expand media platform

Investors: The investment round was led by Genesia Ventures with participation​ from US-based VC firm Hustle Fund and a group of Vietnam and Hong Kong-based angel investors including Linh Thai, the former CEO of Vingroup Ventures, and Calvin Lam, the Co-founder of Infina.

Also Read: How startups can work the media to their advantage

What will the funding be used for:  To grow Vietcetera’s data science, engineering and product teams.

The company is also planning a Series A round this year.

About Vietcetera: Since its launch in 2016, Vietcetera Media is a media company targeting millennials and Gen-Zs. It is one of Vietnam’s few online channels that serves both Vietnamese and English content.

Xebia partners with DigibankASIA to launch digital bank in the Philippines

The story: Xebia, a global digital services consulting firm, announced it has partnered with Singapore-based fintech company DigibankASIA to launch UNObank — a full-service digital bank, which is working with the regulators for a pilot launch in the Philippines.

Also Read: McKinsey on Asia’s digital-only banks: ‘Consortia present challenges but they offer a path to scaling relatively quickly’

About UNObank: UNO is DigibankASIA’s neo banking brand. DigitbankASIA claims UNO has an AI-first approach to banking. It’s Cognito platform uses machine vision and learning models for services such as customer onboarding, transaction authorizations, and alternate data-based credit scoring, among others.

Digital wallets thrive in Singapore as e-commerce surges, new FIS report finds

Key Trends:

• The Singapore e-commerce market reached US$7 billion in 2020, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The market is expected to grow by 40 per cent over the next four years, driven by mobile shopping.
• Credit cards (45 per cent), digital wallets (20 per cent) and bank transfers (12 per cent) were the most popular online payment methods in 2020. Digital wallets are forecasted to overtake credit cards as the most popular online payment method by 2024, accounting for almost a third (27 per cent) of the market.
• Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) payment methods are also gaining in popularity. Currently only accounting for 3 per cent of the market, it is on track to increase to 13 per cent by 2024.

 

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Image Credit: Neuron Mobility

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For this month, we launched a feature called Connect Summary dashboard to help Pro members view and manage their connection better and we also spent the rest of the month dedicated in improving the experience of our platform for all users.

Connect summary dashboard

Connect summary is a part of the Connect Dashboard where Pro members could easily view connection status and the Investors that they connected with. Currently, it’s still in the beta version, if you faced any issue or bugs, do let us know by submitting the report from the box on the bottom left.

Credit card detail removal

We noticed that a lot of you wanted to try out our Pro features but were not sure if you wanted to commit or felt comfortable sharing your credit card details, so we removed the need to add the credit card details for trial period. Enjoy the free trial and up your game!

Bug fixes and system improvement

Our platform was built many years ago and technology moves far faster than that. We realised they were a few bugs that slowed down performance. Starting this month we dedicated ourselves to improve our system and spray dead most of the bugs we can find, so you’ll have a better experience using our platform.

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InVent, the corporate VC arm of Thailand-based Intouch Holdings, has announced investments into two local startups Datafarm (Series A) and Swift Dynamics (pre-Series A).

The transaction details remain undisclosed.

Both the companies, according to the VC firm, will play a crucial role in supporting corporates to strongly step into the fully-digitised 5G era.

Founded in 2012, Datafarm is a cyber security company that helps enterprises prevent cyber risks on their IT infrastructure by providing them with increased protection.

It helps government agencies and businesses protect their data through three main stages, which include penetration testing (Pentest), Vulnerability Assessment (VA), and cybersecurity consulting.

“The tools created by Datafarm focus on ease of use and can be compiled according to various standards/requirements at an affordable price which is scheduled to be released by the end of this year,” Pisuttisak Chongboonchuer, CEO of Datafarm, said.

Also Read: Robowealth rakes in Series A from Beacon VC to lower wealth gap in Thailand through tech

“From funding support and business cooperation with Intouch affiliates, and tremendous increase of the cybersecurity market, company expects revenue will increase to 300 per cent within three to five years,” he further added.

Launched in 2018, Swift Dynamics is an IoT management provider which connects multiple devices of clients to the cloud.

The firm provides tools for businesses to improve every part of their business, starting from customer relationship management, procurement management, business operations management, project, construction management, to logistics management.

Co-founder Natee Singhaputtangkul believes that Swift Dynamics is one of the very few firms in Thailand that provides customers with all-in-one IoT-based solutions using 5G network.

The startup also plans to expand overseas in the next five years.

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Image Credit: InVent.

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Eden Farm, an Indonesian agritech startup focussing on the farming supply chain, has received an undisclosed amount in a pre-Series A funding round, led by Australian VC firm Investible. AC Ventures, Corin Capital, and unnamed strategic angel investors also participated.

The fresh funds will be used to expand Eden Farm’s operations in the Java and Sumatra regions and offer increased stock-keeping units (SKU) selections for its merchant partners.

The company also seeks to develop technology to further automate its business processes and grow its farmers’ funding unit.

Must Read: A comprehensive guide to Indonesia’s agritech ecosystem

Indonesia is home to over 30 million farmers, with the agriculture sector contributing 14 per cent of its GDP — US$140 billion in market size. However, it is heavily fragmented with inefficient supply chains and significant margin leakages, limiting farmers’ income.

Founded in 2017, Eden Farm focuses on tackling the problem by connecting farmers and communities upstream with F&B businesses, including restaurants, street food vendors and central markets.

The Y Combinator alumnus aims to achieve this by bringing farmers’ produce directly to businesses. On the demand side, Eden Farm allows street vendors and restaurants to reduce costs, save time and increase income.

Besides, it supports farms by creating better access to quality inputs (such as seeds and fertilisers), as well as financing services to support their farming businesses.

Eden Farm claims it services over 25,000 merchants in 12 cities across Java. On the supply side, Eden Farm is supported by more than 1,500 individual farmers from the islands of Java and Sumatra. The company expects this number to grow exponentially in 2021, enabled by its stronger foothold and upstream sourcing capabilities.

Also Read: Robots on the farm: This startup is enabling farm mechanisation in India to cope with rising food demand

“Eden Farm disaggregates the food supply chain by efficiently leveraging communal farming to provide just-in-time inventory to food wholesalers, resellers and hotels. The business has an incredible opportunity to decrease food prices and wastage across Indonesia,” said Daniel Veytsblit, Investment Director of Investible,

“Eden Farm has created strong defensibility through its upstream sourcing capability, demand aggregation and simplifying of the supply chain, enabling farmers to receive stable demand and buyers to purchase fresh produce at more affordable prices and better quality,” opined Adrian Li, Managing Partner of AC Ventures.

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Image Credit: Eden Farm

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Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), the leading cloud communications platform, released its second annual State of Customer Engagement Report today. Combining insight from the Twilio platform, which powers over 1 trillion human interactions annually, with results of new global research of 2,500 enterprise decision-makers, the report reveals that digital communications were critical to business survival in 2020, and that the solutions that were built will shape business success in the post-pandemic economy.

“For nearly every organization dealing with the impacts of the pandemic, increased digital engagement was a core part of their solutions. From remote learning to work-from-home contact centre agents to vaccine distribution logistics, digital communications have played a critical role. We expect that to accelerate through the pandemic recovery and become the new normal,” said Glenn Weinstein, Chief Customer Officer at Twilio.

Also read: Meet these 5 verified investors that are ready to connect with you today

The 2021 State of Customer Engagement Report outlines the major trends in digital engagement that emerged in 2020, and how they are shaping digital adoption across global companies in every industry. The trends include soaring digital interaction between businesses and customers, and what this means for personalization; the rise of the agile workforce; how highly regulated industries are leading in digital adoption; the next generation of video; and how businesses are choosing to build unique experiences. Key findings from the report include:

● Red tape didn’t stop play in APAC — even highly regulated industries experimented. 86% of APAC companies across finance, government and healthcare report COVID-19 spurred their highly regulated organization to explore new strategies to serve customers. 78% of the same companies report it will be critically or very important to their success going forward.

● 2020 catapulted Singapore into a hybrid economy, where nearly every in-person interaction will have a digital element. 93% of Singapore business leaders report that COVID-19 accelerated their move to the cloud, equipping companies with the flexibility to serve customers from anywhere. 95% plan to increase or maintain their current communications channel offerings after the pandemic, and expect to add an average of four new channels this year.

● Digital engagement will remain essential to Singapore’s business survival and success. 90% in Singapore report that increased customer engagement during the pandemic drove new customer insights. 82% report digital customer engagement will be critically or very important to their success going forward.

● Companies that adopt a “builder” mindset will survive, those that do not will be outcompeted. 89% of enterprise decision-makers in Singapore report they will choose to build communications solutions to meet customer demands in the future, rather than buy a pre-configured solution. 91% of C-level executives in Singapore found developers were crucial to solving business challenges brought on by COVID. 
The report recognizes Twilio Engagement Builders, innovative organizations that built cutting edge digital solutions to stay connected to their customers and communities in 2020. Engagement Builders include Comcast, BGL Group, Delta Air Lines, Norwegian Refugee Council, and LINE Japan. To explore what they built and read the full report, go to twilio.com/state-of-customer-engagement.

Also read: Scaling communities like startups

Methodology: This report draws insight from Twilio platform data, which reflects digital engagement activity that occurred on Twilio in 2020. Twilio platform data do not represent Twilio’s historical or future financial performance and are presented solely as a context for broader market trends. The report also includes original research from a survey of over 2,500 enterprise decision-makers across the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, and Singapore. The research was fielded by a third party to understand how businesses view the role of digital engagement. Survey respondents are full-time employees of companies with 500 to 25,000+ employees, from the director to the executive level.

About Twilio: Millions of developers around the world have used Twilio to unlock the magic of communications to improve any human experience. Twilio has democratised communications channels like voice, text, chat, video, and email by virtualizing the world’s communications infrastructure through APIs that are simple enough for any developer to use, yet robust enough to power the world’s most demanding applications. By making communications a part of every software developer’s toolkit, Twilio is enabling innovators across every industry — from emerging leaders to the world’s largest organizations — to reinvent how companies engage with their customers.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 
Twilio

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Singapore-based global consumer internet honcho, Sea Group, has launched a venture fund to invest in tech startups.

The group has also allocated an initial amount of US$1 billion for the fund, called Sea Capital, to be invested over the next few years.

The announcement was made during a conference call on Tuesday.

Also Read: How Garena became extremely important for Tencent’s future

As per a press statement, Sea Capital is a new platform launched to manage the group’s investment efforts, and further strengthen its investment and capital allocation capability. It will help accelerate the growth of the overall digital economy and create real and lasting value for our users, business partners and communities.

The corporate venture capital fund will be headed by Chief Investment Officer David Ma, who will report directly to Sea Group founder Forrest Li. Ma is founder of Composite Capital Management, a Hong Kong-based global investment management firm which has recently been fully acquired by Sea Group.

“Sea Capital will focus on identifying, partnering with, and investing in technology companies that share our vision of bettering the lives of consumers and small businesses through technology,” Sea CEO Forrest Li said.

As per a Bloomberg report, Sea is following in the footsteps of internet behemoths SoftBank and Tencent by creating a corporate investment arm as the company aims to deepen its offerings in gaming, e-commerce and digital financial services as well as look for new areas of growth.

Also Read: How Shopee uses AI, data to build a marketing strategy that suits changes in user behaviour

Founded in Singapore in 2009, Sea owns and operates a number of internet properties, including Shopee (e-commerce marketplace), Garena (online game developer and publisher), and SeaMoney (a digital financial services network in Southeast Asia).

In 2017, it listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Image Credit: Sea Group

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Budget airline operator AirAsia Group Bhd has launched a food delivery service in Singapore today, according to TodayOnline.

Despite the growing competition of similar services within the region, AirAsia intends to woo customers by promising a five per cent lower delivery charge in comparison to its competitors.

The company is also offering a two-week free delivery for orders within 8 km until March 16. Users can book orders via their website AirAsia Food or its app, where flights can be booked too.

AirAsia Group’s chief executive officer Tony Fernandes said at an online press briefing that its food delivery app will not be having features such as “maps” to locate delivery agents, calling it an unnecessary “frill”.

“Just like AirAsia doesn’t have all the frills of Singapore Airlines, AirAsia Food, for instance, (won’t) have maps. We don’t think you really need to know where your driver is, because that costs us,” he mentioned.

Its platform currently has 24 food-and-beverage outlets which include Swee Choon Tim Sum, Maki-san, PizzaExpress, and Indian Wok, and is in talks to get 300 more food operators on board.

Also Read: COVID-19 accelerates food delivery startups in SEA with Grab responsible for near half of growth: Report

Additionally, AirAsia Food also plans to launch its food delivery service in Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines before the end of this year.

It has also revealed plans to enter the fresh produce delivery market in Singapore where consumers can order imported fish from Japan or short ribs from Korea directly to their homes in Singapore within 48 hours.

COVID-19 has accelerated the food delivery market in Southeast Asia (SEA) and at the same time badly hit travel and hospitality companies.

With the lockdown prompting many in the region to download apps offering food delivery services, the number of downloads has increased 2-2.5 times in March and April.

This trend has led AirAsia to hop into the food delivery space as it bets on the growing potential of the sector while also leaning towards other sources of income to survive.

However, will AirAsia be able to stand up against the likes of established market leaders such as Grab, Deliveroo, and Foodpanda?

Only time will tell.

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Image Credit: Macau Photo Agency

 

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