Southeast Asia’s F&B tech startups — comprising fresh F&B, food delivery, restaurant discovery apps and on-demand grocery services — raised a record US$461 million across 49 funding deals during 2021, up from US$250 million over 36 deals in 2020 and US$115 million over 28 deals in 2019, says a report.
Moreover, homegrown F&B startups have raised over US$900 million of private capital funding over ten years from 2012 to 2021, with Indonesia dominating the funding size with at least US$644 million raised. Indonesia was well ahead of Singapore (US$152 million), Malaysia (US$44 million), the Philippines (US$38 million), Vietnam (US$36 million) and Thailand (US$31 million in deal flows over this period.
The report, titled ‘Tapping into Indonesia’s F&B Revolution’, was conducted by Alpha JWC Ventures in partnership with DealStreetAsia. It covers fundraising activities by venture-backed companies in the region’s F&B scene and deep dives into the exponential growth of F&B as a vertical.
In Indonesia, fresh F&B and grocery services have been the fastest-growing categories during the pandemic, as shown by the median value growth across seed to Series C investment sizes.
Also Read: Why Malaysia’s F&B industry is going digital as a means of economic recovery
Even with such growth, both in company valuation and product usage, there is still plenty of room to explore since the penetration of tech-enabled F&B services is still very low in Indonesia compared to mobile phone and internet penetration.
The report also shares insights from top-performing startups such as Kopi Kenangan, Hangry, Mangkokku, and ESB. It identifies four distinct yet connected eras of Indonesia’s F&B industry: the conventional, incubation, emerging and mature eras, with each period having its own pain points, popular business models, and key players.
Currently, Indonesia is in the middle of its emerging era, marked by the emergence of more tech-enabled enterprises and the country’s (also the region’s) first F&B unicorn startup, Kopi Kenangan.
Interestingly, from the end of the incubation through the current mature era, investor interests in the space remain strong as these startups continue to display high potential. Year-on-year growth for food delivery has maintained a consistent 30 per cent and 50 per cent increase over the past five years.
The non-restaurant-based F&B segment is expected to grow to US$426 billion by 2030 in Indonesia, approximately 6x the size of the restaurant-based segment. This is due to F&B services across the region adapting to evolving consumer preference of food delivery over dine-in, which was further fueled by the pandemic.
The food delivery GMV is set to reach US$14.1 billion by 2025, with a predicted compound annual growth rate of 21.5% between 2020-2025.
All data cited in this report is based on field research, interviews of respondents/sources from companies like Alpha JWC Ventures, ESB, Hangry, and Mangkokku, industry reports, company announcements, media reports, and regulatory filings in Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, Indonesia’s Directorate General of Legal Administrative Affairs and DealStreetAsia’s DATA VANTAGE.
Eko Kurniadi, Partner, Alpha JWC Ventures, said, “As consumers’ behaviours change and expectations heighten, founders navigating the space are also becoming grittier, with more finesse. I see this as a dynamic cycle that is much needed to keep improving the offerings in the F&B industry. The result of this is already apparent with SEA’s first F&B unicorn, Kopi Kenangan, and other up and coming F&B startups that are poised for huge growth in the coming years.”
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