Back in July, WeWork Labs announced that it has launched SPACE-F, a food-tech startup incubator, and accelerator in Thailand, in partnership with the National Innovation Agency (NIA), SET-listed Thai Union Group PCL, and Mahidol University’s Science Faculty.
SPACE-F aims to build a sustainable ecosystem to nurture food tech startups in Thailand. It claims to be the first such initiative in the country and plans to provide services and support to empower the next generation of innovation in food tech.
Targeting to facilitate innovation in one of the following areas: health and wellness; alternative proteins; smart manufacturing; packaging solution; novel food and ingredients; biomaterial and chemical; restaurant tech; food safety and quality; and smart food services, Southeast Asia will likely see a new wave of food tech companies coming out of Thailand.
Adrian Tan, Head of Labs, Southeast Asia for WeWork said: “The time is ripe for food tech advancements, and along with the perfect partners for this program, we are excited to select Thailand as the first stop to launch our partnered Food Labs program and help bring to life some of today’s brightest ideas right here in Thailand.”
Here are some of the already established food tech -with some of them listed on Tracxn’s “FoodTech Startups in Bangkok” in the country that paved the way for the up and coming food startups.
Polpa
Polpa is an on-demand food delivery service based in Bangkok that helps people watch their waistline and eliminates the consumption of rich, oily, and processed food that increases the early death rate.
Launched in November 2015 originally as about 18 Mediterranean-inspired homemade dishes menu from ingredients sourced locally, Polpa offers only healthy meals made from natural, organic ingredients in its menu with each food item displayed with a basic description of its nutritional benefits.
In March 2018, Polpa was acquired by Dahmakan, Malaysia-based ready-to-eat food delivery startup, foraying into the Thai market.
Wishbeer
Wishbeer is a Thai take on beer startup, where it provides choices of beers from across the globe and let customers go wild over them.
Also Read: One beer a day keeps the doctor away: Wishbeer Founder
Wishbeer was founded in 2012, aimed to import premium beers like the options of Pale Ales, Dark Lagers, to Herb-Spiced kinds into Thailand with more affordable prices. Wishbeer claimed that it also offers gluten-free beer.
FoodStory
Operating under Thailand-based startup Living Mobile, app-based FoodStory targets business owners to help them manage their restaurants. As for customers, the app can be used to connect with these restaurants.
Foodstory, founded in 2012, offers the POS system, inventory management, eMenu, business reports, branch management, and e-promotion system for restaurants. It allows restaurants to manage orders, queues, table booking, billing, and even kitchen.
Wongnai
Founded in 2010, Wongnai offers primarily restaurant reviews in Thailand, allowing users to access information and photos of restaurants in the country with a map-based search. It also lets users posting their reviews of a restaurant.
In 2016, Wongnai secured a Series B funding from InTouch Holdings’ VC arm, InVent. In 2018, the company invests US$1 million in restaurant POS startup FoodStory to help build its restaurant management system on its platform.
JuiceInnov8
Also classified as a deep-tech startup, JuiceInnov8 is a food biotechnology-focussed company that seeks to bring less sugar & lower calories juice using a sugar reduction technology platform that uses natural, non-genetically modified microbes, and its proprietary sugar conversion processes.
According to the company, JuiceInnov8’s technology allows juices that are available in the market to retain its original juice content and key nutrients but with near-zero sugar and calorie content.
In February, it closed a US$500,000 pre-Series A round led by 500 Startups’ Durians II Fund, and TukTuks Fund.
Kinkao
Founded in 2016, Kinkao describes its business as an online home chef community that delivers food from homes to customers. Customers can book a home-cooked meal for office lunches, events, and private chefs for get-togethers and parties.
In December 2018, Kinkao raised a round of funding from 500 Startups’ 500 TukTuks II, its Thailand-focussed seed fund, alongside five other startups.
Thai Snack Online
Thai Snack Online offers a digital way to enjoy snacks through subscription boxes that consist of biscuits, candy, chips, nuts, crackers, fruit snacks, cookies, seafood snacks, and instant food.
The company that was founded in 2015 supplies products from various well-known brands such as Sugus, Pejoy, and Koala’s March and accepts online payment and customer order tracking services.
KukBox
Using KukBox’s iOS app, users can order food from multiple nearby restaurants in a single order. It uses an in-house delivery team.
Besides that, the company that first started its operation in 2017 also provides a menu with calorie count and tracks calories consumed on the app.
HungryHub
HungryHub specializes in buffet restaurant reservations with point incentives, provides both website and mobile applications. It lets users book restaurants and for restaurants, and manage their reservations.
HungryHub has two interfaces – one for the diners and one for the restaurants, both are connected in real-time. The diners can search for various listed restaurants, look for their menus, and book a table by specifying the date, time and party size.
Also Read: Thai buffet app Hungry Hub secures US$450K funding from Expara, 500 Startups
Established in 2014, HungryHub first served as an online restaurant reservation app. However, in 2016, the startup pivoted and redefined itself into a fixed-price dining offer app.
In August 2019, HungryHub received its first funding from Expara and 500 Startups, raising US$450,000.
Cookly
Based in Thailand, Cookly focusses on the cooking activity vertical of food technology, as it offers online booking for cooking classes.
Cookly allows customers to discover and book cooking classes around the world leveraging on its connection to cooking schools to assure a high level of quality and trust. Cooking schools agree to work with them, because of low online visibility and poor to no existing booking systems.
Cookly said that its customers are mainly tourists around the world, interested in cultural activities.
In June 2018, Cookly announced that it has raised an undisclosed pre-Series A funding round led by Poramin Insom, founder of leading cryptocurrency Zcoin. Existing investor 500 TukTuks also participated in the funding round.
Eatigo
Eatigo is an app-based restaurant booking service provider that facilitates time-based discounts for restaurants. Merchants move customers from peak to off-peak and attract new customers to increase profitability. Users make online reservations and have varied discounts depending on the time slot for each restaurant every day.
Founded in 2013, Eatigo found global fame in 2016 when the restaurant booking app secured a Series B funding from TripAdvisor’s TheFork, its global restaurant reservation brand. It was TripAdvisor’s first investment in Southeast Asia-based startup.
Also Read: Restaurant booking app eatigo raises multimillion-dollar Series A
Two years later, TripAdvisor adds capital into the company in a pre-Series C round, putting the company at a total of US$25.5 million in funding raised.
Eatigo allows users to grab cheap meal deals during off-peak hours. The model, the company said, helps restaurants maximise their capacity and the customers to eat at discounted prices.
With Thailand embraces the country’s globalised food culture through technology, it’s not impossible to have a first unicorn from the sector, especially with a name like Eatigo that puts Thailand in a bigger league. It’s just a matter of time now to welcome more food tech innovation into the country that has long been associated with food.
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