Taiwan-listed SaaS provider 91APP has acquired 100 per cent stake in restaurant technology firm iCHEF in a US$32 million all-cash deal, marking its largest acquisition to date and formally signalling its expansion into the food and beverage (F&B) technology market.
The move reflects Taiwan’s rapidly evolving digital economy, where SaaS, AI, and cloud-native solutions have become central to business transformation across various sectors, particularly the F&B and retail industries.
The acquisition enables 91APP to enhance its technological capabilities while expanding its total addressable market across retailtech, F&Btech, and adtech verticals.
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The transaction is pending regulatory approval.
Building a cross-industry AI and payments platform
As per a press release, 91APP will integrate iCHEF’s POS, workflow, and AI-driven restaurant management tools to create a multi-sector technology platform with three synergistic engines: retailtech, F&Btech and adtech. The integration is expected to strengthen 91APP’s third-party payments network, enhance digital advertising precision through richer consumer intent data, and expand cross-industry AI applications powered by a more diverse customer base.
Beyond technology, the acquisition gives 91APP immediate access to iCHEF’s pool of experienced F&B operators and engineers, enabling faster product development and service delivery. iCHEF currently supports more than 15,000 restaurant locations across Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
A decisive push into Taiwan’s fast-growing F&B sector
The deal comes at a moment of accelerated digital adoption in Taiwan’s F&B industry. Post-pandemic recovery has been robust, with the sector projected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 6.5 per cent from 2025 to 2033. More than 179,000 F&B establishments operate across the island, competing in a market increasingly shaped by digital ordering, data analytics, AI-powered personalisation and cloud-based operational tools.
In 2025, restaurants in Taiwan have been turning to platforms like iCHEF to optimise labour-intensive workflows, streamline reservations, improve menu profitability, and strengthen customer engagement.
Integrating these capabilities with 91APP’s payment, OMO (online-merge-offline) and digital advertising engines positions the combined company to benefit from the sector’s shift toward data-driven operations.
A signal of maturity and cross-sector integration
The acquisition is widely seen as a sign of Taiwan’s maturing startup environment. As SaaS, AI, and digital transformation become core pillars of national competitiveness, the iCHEF-91APP deal reinforces investor interest in high-growth verticals such as AI, fintech and biotech.
The move is expected to spark greater cross-sector collaboration between retail and F&B operators, accelerate the adoption of cloud-based management tools, and attract more venture capital into Taiwanese startups poised for regional expansion.
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Such acquisitions also encourage founders to build scalable, vertically specialised solutions rather than focusing solely on consumer applications — a trend that aligns with Taiwan’s strengths in enterprise technology and smart hardware.
A landmark deal in a booming M&A landscape
Taiwan’s mergers and acquisitions market has been extremely active over the past two years, recording 252 transactions in 2024 and maintaining momentum throughout 2025. Major deals — such as the US$7.8 billion merger of Taishin Financial and Shin Kong Financial, and WPG Holdings’s US$3.8 billion acquisition of Future Electronics — highlight growing appetite from both local and international investors for technology, green energy and financial services assets.
Against this backdrop, 91APP’s purchase of iCHEF stands out as one of the year’s most notable technology transactions, solidifying the company’s strategy of using M&A to accelerate expansion. Previous deals include acquiring a Hong Kong startup to establish an overseas hub and investing in a Malaysian partner to enter Southeast Asia — each marking a strategic inflexion point.
A platform play: Retailtech meets F&Btech meets adtech
91APP says the acquisition will support its long-term ambition of becoming an “EveryTech” SaaS company — a cross-industry service provider capable of enabling digital transformation for both online and offline merchants across lifestyle categories.
By integrating iCHEF’s F&B systems with its existing retail commerce cloud and payments infrastructure, 91APP aims to:
- grow recurring revenue streams
- increase transaction volumes across payment services
- enhance retail media and advertising efficiency through deeper consumer intent signals
- accelerate AI scenario development in areas such as predictive ordering, demand forecasting, and personalised marketing
- strengthen merchant loyalty through unified analytics and customer management tools
With both companies aligned in their cloud-native, merchant-first cultures, the merger is expected to produce stable long-term synergies.
Regional ambitions and APAC leadership
Founded in 2013 and listed since 2021, 91APP is Taiwan’s first publicly listed cloud-native SaaS provider. It specialises in omnichannel retail transformation, D2C solutions, and AI-powered customer engagement tools. It has reported consistent double-digit annual growth in both revenue and profit, reaching record highs each year.
Founded in 2012, iCHEF offers a cloud-based POS and comprehensive restaurant management system covering reservations, QR code ordering, loyalty programmes, analytics and AI-driven advisory tools. It serves more than 15,000 restaurant locations across Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Both companies have footprints beyond Taiwan, with iCHEF serving F&B operators in Hong Kong and Singapore, and 91APP maintaining operations in Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Japan. By combining resources, 91APP intends to validate the replicability of its technology across markets and extend its leadership in Asia-Pacific’s growing SaaS and AI sectors.
Also Read: Why Southeast Asia’s locally owned adtech and martech industry will survive the recession
The acquisition also strengthens Taiwan’s position as a regional hub for SaaS innovation — particularly in sectors where operational complexity meets high digital transformation demand, such as F&B.
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