FoodStory, a Thailand-based restaurant management startup, announced today that it has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a Series B round led by Beacon VC, the venture capital arm of Kasikornbank.

JWD InfoLogistics, a company engaged in integrated in-land and overseas logistics businesses, also joined the round.

FoodStory (not to be confused with Indonesia’s cloud kitchen startup FoodStory) intends to use the proceeds from the round for product development, so it can in turn improve restaurant operation efficiency in the future.

Launched in 2012, FoodStory aims to enhance the Thai restaurant ecosystem by turning data into insights for owners to better understand and optimise their businesses for sustainable development.

Apart from supporting restaurant operations management, FoodStory’s solution also allows them to acquire new customers and improve sales.

On the user’s front, its smartphone app lets food lovers find and read stories, and stay in touch with the restaurants in real time.

As of now, the startup claims to have over 25,000 users on its platform.

Also Read: Dinner date with data: How F&B retailers can use retail data to drive sales in a post-pandemic world

“For the past two years, we have developed the restaurant ecosystem through a partnership with LINE MAN and Wongnai in order to help restaurants increase their revenue. We launched FoodStory Market to facilitate the online purchase of raw ingredients and address the pain points of price fluctuation, inconvenience in physical shopping, and employee fraud,” said Thagoon Chartsutipol, founder of FoodStory.

“In order to empower a comprehensive restaurant ecosystem that connects farm to folk, we need a strong financial services partner like KBank and a cold chain logistics expert like JWD to fill these gaps and successfully build on the new form of supply chain business,” he added.

“JWD Group foresees the importance and growth potential of the food industry, especially through e-commerce channels. Our investment in FoodStory is one of the e-commerce strategies to accelerate the food logistics business to cover B2B, B2C, and C2C segments in the future.

This growth will be enabled by cold chain express delivery service as well as an extensive network of temperature-controlled distribution centers and warehouses according to our business plan,” Tanate Piriyothinkul, Chief Commercial Officer of JWD InfoLogistics PCL, added.

“Despite the uncertainty within the restaurant industry due to the pandemic, Beacon VC believes that FoodStory will play a crucial role in helping restaurant entrepreneurs to survive this crisis, especially as they shift from dine-in to take-out and food delivery,” commented Thanapong Na Ranong, Managing Director of Beacon VC.

In 2018, FoodStory had raised US$1 million in funding from Wongnai.

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Image Credit: FoodStory

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500 Startups Vietnam’s general partners Binh Tran and Eddie Thai launch new seed fund Ascend Vietnam Ventures (AVV); AVV will invest US$500K to US$2M into 25 startups over the next three years; A third of those companies will receive follow-on investment of up to US$4mn each.

Emtek Group buys minority stake in Grab’s Indonesia unit in sign of deepening alliance; This transaction follows Grab’s acquisition of a 4.6% stake in Emtek for US$635mn in March; According to sources, Emtek is interested in buying Tokopedia’s stake in payments firm OVO.

Following the GoTo merger, should Grab buy an e-commerce marketplace?; If Grab is indeed eyeing a merger or an acquisition, then ecommerce unicorn Bukalapak is a potential candidate; This rumor was fueled by Grab’s recent alliance with Indonesian conglomerate Emtek, which backs Bukalapak and e-wallet Dana.

Singapore’s 8i Capital files to raise US$50mn for second Asia-focused SPAC; In a filing, 8i said it will pursue prospective targets in Asia, particularly businesses with enterprise value of between US$100mn and US$500mn that are preferably already cash-generative.

GoTo’s targeting US$40bn IPO valuation — is it the price of future growth?; Food delivery and financial services will likely be the most promising businesses for GoTo; By pursuing an IPO, GoTo will be looking for ammunition to compete with Grab and Sea; But the biggest challenge right now is timing.

Singapore’s drug discovery company Engine Biosciences secures US$42mn; Investors include Polaris Partner (lead), EDBI, Baidu Ventures, Vectr Ventures; Engine will use the newly raised capital to expand its portfolio of precision oncology therapeutics, prepare for its first clinical programmes, and scale its tech platform.

Indonesia’s HR and finance management startup Mekari acquires Qontak; Qontak is startup that provides CRM and omnichannel communications platforms; It aims to strengthen Mekari’s end-to-end offering for SMEs in IndonesiaThis acquisition follows Mekari’s US$21mn Series D led by Money Forward in April.

WeedHub tells you where you can source good quality cannabis from, legally!; WeedHub is an online directory for cannabis, which targets anyone who has smoked and/or consumed alcohol before; The startup plans to launch WeedHubX Accelerator in Bangkok, WeedHub Festival/PopUp Market, and its own end-to-end e-commerce platform.

Philippine mobile healthcare and medical last-mile logistics startup zennya nets US$1.2mn; Lead investors are Foxmont Capital Partners, Ignite House of Innovation, and DayOne Capital Ventures; zennya has created a virtual hospital ecosystem through integration of diagnostic laboratories, health maintenance organisations, and pharmaceuticals, wth a delivery network of doctors, nurses, therapists, motorcycle drivers, cars, and ambulances.

Philippine startup Fortuna Cools attracts funding for its eco-friendly coolers made from coconut; Lead investors are ADB Ventures and Katapult Ocean Fund; Its first product is Fortuna Coconut Cooler, which is available Philippines as a B2B product, is for fresh food packaging and the transport of perishable goods; It will soon launch its second product, Nutshell Cooler, as an eco-conscious consumer product in key international markets.

B2B marketplace for industrial hardware and supplies Eezee raises pre-Series A; Investors include Wavemaker (lead), January Capital, and Insignia Ventures; Eezee has secured a government contract to enable Singapore’s 400K civil servants to procure items directly from its platform.

Temasek invests in Forge to help grow its private securities marketplace beyond US; Forge is a marketplace for private equity, giving private and institutional investors access to top pre-IPO companies; Since inception, Forge claims to have completed more than US$9bn in transactions in nearly 400 private companies.

Indonesian crypto exchange Pintu raises funding; Lead investors are Pantera Capital (lead), Intudo Ventures, and Coinbase Ventures; Pintu is a mobile-first platform in the archipelago offering UI/UX simplicity, security, and education for the majority of Indonesians who are mostly buying cryptoassets for the first time.

Singapore’s social fantasy sports app TrophyRoom closes bridge funding; Investors are Maxify and Nest Tech and angels; A free-to-play game, TrophyRoom is taking the best parts of fantasy football, shaving off the complexities, focusing more on the thrill of the live matches and putting a card game as the cherry on top; The startup is taking steady aim at the exploding Indian fantasy sports market later this year.

US-based chat-commerce startup Yalo raises US$50mn led by B Capital; The funding will be used to expand its services to emerging markets like Southeast Asia; Yalo is building tools for businesses to use messaging apps as part of their customer outreach and sales strategies; The startup has raised US$75mn to date.

How SoftBank taught the market to love loss-making startups; With blockbuster listings of his risky bets on Asia, Masayoshi Son has defied critics who have said that his aggressive gambles on cash-burning startups would not be embraced by public market investors; Ahead, a slew of potentially lucrative initial public offerings are slated for 2021.

Real-time digital payments volume surges 48% in Singapore; In 2020, total real-time transactions reached 138.38mn, up a staggering 48% from 93.24mn in 2019, while the value of real-time transactions surged 40%, jumping from US$110bn in 2019 to US$154bn, says a 2021 Prime-Time for Real Time report.

Axiata Digital’s fintech holding arm acquires 68.75% stake in Indonesian P2P lender KIMO’s parent; KIMO will be a key growth engine for Boost Holdings to widen its reach to the underserved micro and small enterprises regionally; Boost disbursed over US$50mn via its micro financing and micro-insurance service provider Aspirasi to benefit 9K+ unique micro-enterprises in the last year alone.

Foodtech startup ChickP expanding into APAC with the launch of a new office in Singapore; The strategic move is in response to the rapidly growing demand for plant-based products in the region; ChickP has also appointed Moy Teo as its BD Director for Asia; ChickP has developed a neutral-taste chickpea protein isolates that are both nutritious and functional.

How to build a CX business case for your CFO; In a post-pandemic landscape, businesses are going to be expected to make more of an impact with fewer resources; CFOs need to be hyper-selective with investments moving forward, and in most cases, ROI is the only conversation that truly matters.

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MiCare raises US$60M from IFC, Mitsui Asia

Plans: The strategic investment will be used to fund MiCare’s expansion in key Southeast Asian markets, including Indonesia and Vietnam, as well as to set up a new regional headquarters in Singapore.

What is MiCare: A subsidiary of Zuellig Pharma, MiCare is a managed care organisation  that administers, processes and manages medical claims of policyholders and members on behalf of insurance companies and self-insured corporate clients.

The company also builds applications linking key players in the healthcare sector such as doctors, patients, hospitals, clinics and pharmacies to facilitate management of medical claims.

Currently, MiCare claims to have more than 13 million members in three countries — Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines — and is looking to continue to grow and expand in the region.

MiCare currently processes medical claims of approximately US$400 million annually. The company manages and administers medical claims for over 45 insurers in the region, serving more than 6,500 corporate clients in over 5,000 hospitals, clinics and pharmacies.

B Capital leads US$50M in Yalo

What is Yalo: Founded in 2015, Yalo is a US-based chat commerce startup for businesses.

It offers an artificial intelligence-powered CRM (Customer Relation Management) that allows businesses to handle sales and build personal relationships, at scale, on Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and WeChat.San Francisco-based chat commerce startup,

Plans: For expansion into Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Grab partners with Stripe

The story: Grab has announced a partnership with payments giant Stripe to offer GrabPay Wallet as a payment method through Stripe.

This news was first reported by TechInAsia.

More about the story: To be first launched in Singapore and Malaysia, the partnership will allow payments to be processed in both Singaporean dollars and Malaysian ringgit.

Also Read: Early-stage learnings from former Grab employee on building a startup to help labour in Indonesia

“With e-commerce’s increasing popularity here, we believe that Stripe’s expertise and technology will help us deliver an enhanced payments experience for Southeast Asians,” said Grab Financial Group’s managing director and head of GrabPay, Chris Yeo.

Meet the 5 Asian agtech startups competing for the Future Food Asia Award 2021

What is the programme about: Future Food Asia Award is a platform that showcases agritech and food tech innovations in the APAC region.

The story: 10 startups from across the world will be competing for the Future Food Asia Award out of which 5 are from Asia. They will competed for a funding of US$100,000.

Here are the selected startups from the APAC region –

Allozymes (Singapore)

Uses microfluidics technology to develop custom-designed enzymes for cleaner and sustainable manufacturing of complex natural products.

Fasal (India)

An end-to-end farming app that helps horticulture farmers make smart decisions in order to maximise their yields and minimise wastage of resources.

Also Read: Fasal’s IoT device increases yield, reduces wastage by helping horticulture farmers make smart decisions on crops

IXON (Hong Kong, China)

Enables the storage of fresh meat, fish, and seafood at room temperature for up to two years.

REharvest (South Korea)

A food-upcycling company that repurposes by-products from beer and shikhye (traditional Korean drink).

Senior Deli (Hong Kong, China)

Provide quality care and promotes healthy lifestyles for the elderly.

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Image Credit: Grab

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Binh Tran and Eddie Thai, the general partners of 500 Startups Vietnam, have joined hands together to launch a new VC firm targeting local seed-stage startups.

Christened Ascend Vietnam Ventures (AVV), it will invest between US$500,000 and US$2 million each in 25 startups over the next three years — a third of which will also receive follow-on investment of up to US$4 million each.

“We are open to taking a look at anything tech or tech-enabled, but we do have a prioritisation of sectors this time around,” said Thai, General Partner at AVV.

Also Read: Vietnam’s Sky Mavis receives US$7.5M Series A to grow its blockchain game Axie Infinity

Startups operating in sectors such as fintech, edutech, future of work, health-tech, and enterprise SaaS will get the first priority. Priority 2 sectors are supply chain & logistics, manufacturing & robotics, agritech, e-sports & gaming, and managed marketplaces & retail enablers.

Although Thai and Tan will spend majority of their time at AVV, the duo will still continue to support 500 Startups’s portfolio companies/ founders and look to maximise returns to their investors.

“Binh and I will continue to steward 500 Startups Vietnam but will be spending the majority of our time going forward on the new firm. Besides the two of us, all other personnel will be dedicated to one or the other,” he said.

Will 500 and AVV complement each other? “500 Startups Vietnam will be fully deployed before AVV invests. So there will not be considerations of co-investment. However, AVV will be interested to investing in some of 500’s best companies, should the opportunity arise (and subject to advisory committee clearance),” Thai elaborated.

To a question on why there is a need for a new seed VC firm in Vietnam, Thai said: “If one were to look only at raw gunpowder, it might be said that there is ‘enough’ seed capital available (in Vietnam). But as we know by now, it’s not enough for founders to simply see that there is money around.”

The right founders have to be able to access the right amount of capital at the right time but that’s just not happening, he said. Due to differences in experience and market knowledge, etc., there are still all kinds of capital market inefficiencies in the early-stage financing space.

“Beyond that, founders could use robust support from their investors to help ensure that they build strong foundations for the long term. But they don’t always get that support either,” Thai explained.

According to Thai, when the duo first considered launching 500 Startups Vietnam, the startup landscape in Vietnam was completely different from what it is today. Back then, tech startup founders were few and far between, toiling away with limited resources or guidance.

There were just a handful of early-stage investors in a tech ecosystem where terms like convertible notes, minimum viable products, and cap tables were foreign.

Also Read: Naver, Sea, Vertex invest in Vietnamese VC firm Do Ventures’s US$50M fund I

“To give a sense of how young the ecosystem was, the total amount of venture capital invested in Vietnam in 2017 was US$48 million, a minuscule amount for a country of almost 100 million people. Fast forward just two years later to 2019 and that number has approached US$1 billion,” he said.

“Startups like ELSA, Trusting Social, Axie Infinity, and Earable have attracted global investors such as Sequoia, Founders Fund, Gradient (Google’s AI-focused fund), and Mark Cuban,” he noted.

For the past three decades, Vietnam has been the fastest growing market in Southeast Asia and is forecast to continue to play a critical role in the region for years to come.

“We believe that Vietnam in the near future will be a new tech capital. Rather than take a protectionist stance, Vietnam’s openness to global players creates a competitive environment forcing tech founders to be scrappier, data focused, and more open to international collaboration and expansion,” he pointed out.

Meanwhile, local and foreign founders alike find themselves in an attractive and accessible place with a low cost of living, a safe and stable society, and a large and affordable talent pool with some of the best engineers in Southeast Asia.

In addition, many of the problems, spending capabilities, and behaviours of consumers and SMEs that exist in Vietnam are likely to be found also in emerging markets across Asia Pacific and beyond.

Also Read: Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam the most attractive fintech hubs in SEA, says study

Asked where he sees the country’s startup ecosystem in the next five years, Tan said: “What has happened in Vietnam since we announced 500 Startups in 2016 indeed shows how much is possible in a fairly short span of time (and with relatively few resources compared to other countries in Southeast Asia).”

“Even so, we’re thinking in decades, not days, and on that horizon, there is little doubt in my mind that Vietnam can be a global tech hub. Different people can make different prognostications about what hub will be larger or grow faster than which other one, but the bottom line is that there is much that can be done to improve the human condition, and I believe Vietnam will inevitably be a part of that,” Thai elaborated.

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Image Credit: Ascend Vietnam Ventures

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COVID-19 has become the force that shapes our present economy and creates new customer demands and needs, thereby challenging businesses to improve their performance.

However, history shows that disasters are not new; what has changed is the advancement of technology that enables organisations to shift toward decentralised and networked structures.

This in turn allows for offshore tech operations to become a favourable business practice during the pandemic, for its non-disruptive nature and significant cost saving. But here’s the catch, organisations must overcome these key challenges in order to manage their offshore developers.

Communication

Did you know that 70 per cent of workplace communication is non-verbal? Through body language and facial expressions, we learn how serious an issue actually is; or the trust and confidence toward their company.

Unfortunately, offshoring your tech operations to another country means most interactions occur virtually via email, chats, calls, and video conference. There is a pretty good chance that communication will suffer as there are more layers and friction that hinder the flow of information.

According to a study conducted by Harvard Business Review, remote workers who don’t get to interact well tend to get incomplete stories, never the full picture and are more disconnected or alienated compared to onsite workers. Meaning it is one of the biggest disadvantages of offshoring tech operations that businesses have to overcome.

Also Read: Mio raises US$1M to help rural Vietnamese women become micro-entrepreneurs

Micro-management

It is a daunting challenge to get remote workers motivated to accomplish their tasks on time. The lack of physical presence can sometimes make you feel like you’re shouting into the wind in hopes that they will listen. And for those who claim to be working, you’ll have little choice but to take their words for it.

As a result, about 40 per cent of managers expressed low confidence in their ability to manage workers remotely. This often pushes them into panic mode where extreme methods are taken to offset their doubt.

Managers can start to develop an unreasonable expectation that those team members must be available at all times, ultimately disrupting their work-home balance and causing more stress on the job.

This, in turn, could create a negative spiral, where a manager’s  mistrust leads to micromanagement, causing  drops in employee motivation, further impairing productivity.

Time zone differences

An interesting advantage of building up your tech team in other parts of the word is that project teams can “work round the clock” to optimise schedule and capacity.

However, it might be a real hassle to find a common meeting time that works well for all parties due to the time zone differences. Someone will always have to compromise by meeting outside their normal business hours.

This inhibits productivity and can cause tensions in the team. Additionally, monitoring your offshore team is difficult. Are they working during office hours or are they slacking off? Are your offshore developers able to fix a P1 bug in a timely manner?

Cultural barriers

It is obvious that cultural differences hinder effective communication, right across the project, from within the project team to external stakeholders. This can be particularly challenging for tech talent from deferential cultures such as Vietnam who may feel less comfortable speaking up or sharing ideas directly, especially if they are new to the team or in a more junior role.

Also Read: How looking into Vietnam can help startups save development costs

Moreover, the difference in cultural value will also drastically impact the expectation and performance result.

For example, the Japanese prefer a long detailed report and being on time as a way to show dedication. On the other hand, Vietnamese offshore developers are more laid-back and open-minded. So if you are offshoring your tech operation into Vietnam, having a flexible timeline will encourage them to perform better instead of a strict schedule like the Japanese.

Remote HR Management

Most startups and SMEs struggle on managing their offshore developers, which are often be-prioritised from their core activities. This complexity is multiplied when it comes to remote workers in another country, where the culture and regulatory compliance can be drastically different from yours.

Not only do these gaps create risk that can prove to be costly for companies, they also mean the companies need a dedicated HR department to effectively manage their teams across the globe. In fact, more than 80 per cent of small business owners have to handle HR on their own – and more than 30 per cent weren’t sure they were doing everything correctly.

Offshoring part of the IT operation to other countries has become one of the common strategies for startups and small businesses to scale up their tech capabilities in an efficient and scalable fashion. But to make the most out of it and maximise the benefits, it is crucial for companies to identify any potential offshore challenges and eliminate them.

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Shanghai-based SOSV Chinaccelerator has announced the 10 startups pitching on its 19th demo day.

Out of these, three hail from Southeast Asia.

Selected startups have received support from the accelerator in modules involving business strategy, growth hacking, business development, building traction, as well as fundraising.

Chinaccelerator aims to bridge China and the rest of the world, especially Southeast Asia, through sharing entrepreneurship and innovation lessons learned from the China market.

The accelerator claims to have invested in and accelerated over 170 startups and is the only active accelerator in Asia to have a unicorn go through its programme, i.e Bitmex from Batch 8 (Fall 2015).

A snapshot of the three SEA startups

Bizbaz (Singapore)

Offers a full suite of financial intelligence solutions, including but not limited to, comprehensive risk assessment, alternative credit scoring, fraud detection, e-KYC, financial product aggregation, and recommendation systems.

GetCraft (Indonesia)

A platform where brands can easily scout for and work with creators. According to its website, it has 10,000 creators signed up from Singapore, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

PouchNation (Singapore)

A hotel and event management and mobile payment solution, empowering hotels and event organizers with wearable technology.

Other startups:

AMMA Pregnancy Tracker (Russia, Hong Kong)

An AI-powered mobile app that guides parents from pregnancy through early childhood.

ARO (US, China)

A platform that helps global celebrities sell their branded products directly to consumers in China.

Also Read: Chinaccelerator announces 9 startups in the 16th Demo Day, to bridge China to the world

Data Forge (US, China)

An image annotation platform for training AI data models with high accuracy and low cost.

HuviAir (India)

Mining and construction site productivity tracking and enhancement in the cloud using drones, laser scanners, 360 cameras, and smartphones.

Lattis.io (US, EU)

End-to-end micro-mobility management platform for bike, scooter, and vehicle fleet operators to create a cost-effective and secure shared vehicle service.

Lucidefi (Korea)

DeFi trading terminal with AI-based prediction models helping traders make intelligent trading decisions in real-time.

SuperWorld (US)

A virtual world where users can buy, sell, create, and monetize tokenized assets (NFTs) from virtual land to digital art.

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Engine Biosciences, a Singapore- and US-based drug discovery company, has raised close to US$42 million (S$57 million) in Series A financing from a slew of investors.

Led by Polaris Partner, the round was also joined by Invus, 6 Dimensions Capital, WuXi AppTec, DHVC, EDBI, Baidu Ventures, Vectr Ventures, Goodman Capital, WI Harper, and Nest.Bio.

This comes after over three years after its raised US$10 million seed funding from leading US, Singapore and China-based VCs and multi-stage investors.

Engine will use the newly raised capital to expand its portfolio of precision oncology therapeutics, prepare for its first clinical programmes, and scale its tech platform.

Founded in 2018, Engine’s technology combines biological experimentation with AI to discover and develop better therapies for human diseases

By understanding and testing genetic interactions, it can decipher biological networks to enable more rational drug discovery for both single and combination therapies.

Compared with conventional drug discovery approaches, which are too slow and costly to test and map the huge number of genetic interactions that underlie diseases, Engine’s platform drives orders-of-magnitude gains in speed and scale.

Also Read: Singapore biotech firm Austrianova secures US$100M investment

Two scientific innovations lie at the heart of Engine Biosciences are NetMAPPR and CombiGEM.

NetMAPPR is Engine’s searchable biology platform, revealing gene combinations and drug targets integral to diseases. Whereas, CombiGEM is a patented technology that tests hundreds of thousands of gene interactions experimentally in diseased cells.

The company has performed several large-scale computational and experimental cycles with respect to genetic interactions and their relevance to multiple cancers, claiming to yield new and subsequently validated discoveries.

“Many breakthrough tools to edit, programme, and modulate biology have emerged and matured in recent years. The fundamental question continues to be whether we know the disease-driving errors in the genetic code of biology to direct these tools, including therapeutics,” said Engine Biosciences’s co-founder and CEO Jeffrey Lu.

“We believe Engine’s AI-enabled technology platform has the potential to discover new biology targets and disease-causing links amongst known targets,” said Leon Chen, CEO and Founding Partner of 6 Dimensions Capital.

“Considering the field’s tremendous needs for the right drug targets for the right patients and Engine’s unique capabilities in finding those, we continue to be excited by Engine’s potential to power new medicines,” Chen added.

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When I quit RedDoorz in September 2019, little did I know I would end up in the food industry a little more than a year later. But as I was working on another hospitality company in the US back then, COVID-19 hit New York and all plans for that venture were dashed.

After some soul-searching amidst the lockdown, I came up with the beginnings of what would become Dishserve, and came back to Indonesia in October of 2020 to turn the idea into reality.

Simply, Dishserve is a network for ghost kitchens helping F&B brands reach customers faster and more efficiently. You might say — isn’t that just another cloud kitchen business?

The pandemic has brought on a wave of these with the increased demand for home deliveries, and certainly, that’s part of what led me to close in on this idea. But with Dishserve, there’s more than what meets the eye, and I didn’t want to settle for what other players were already doing

Why stick to a two-sided platform when you can be a three-sided marketplace creating livelihood opportunities for homeowners. While we use home kitchens for operations, the catch is that we do not actually own or operate any of these kitchens. These kitchens are fully operated by the homeowners.

Whereas other players own their kitchens and become a two-sided platform between F&B brands and customers, we also thought about the kind of value we could give to micro-entrepreneurs who cannot afford to go out to work, like stay-at-home moms or recently unemployed individuals.

Also Read: Co-founders of Grab Philippines, Zalora join cloud kitchen startup Kraver’s Canteen’s US$1.5M seed round

By working as a home kitchen in the Dishserve network, they are able to make up on average up to US$600 in additional income per month which is 2.5 times the minimum wage in Jakarta. Apart from enabling livelihood opportunities for homeowners, Dishserve also benefits as a business from reduced costs of operation.

The typical cloud kitchen business would aggregate both the mid-mile (food processing, cooking, production) and last-mile (heating, packaging, delivery) segments within the same location, and this can be costly as renting space to cover all these is not cheap.

By decoupling the mid-mile operations and last-mile distribution, letting the brands take care of the mid-mile objectives and the homeowners and platforms such as Grab, Gojek take care of the last-mile distribution, we act as a network for F&B brands to expand their customer base without interfering with or potentially compromising their food quality and consistency.

This means that the homeowners we work with only have to heat, assemble, and package the food before delivering them to the customer. So our app helps the homeowners manage this entire operation–from inventory, orders, invoices, and audits– in one place.

The kitchen audit feature on this app also allows us to maintain the quality and performance of this process. The homeowner/kitchen operator has to periodically send photos and videos of their kitchen and these submissions are moderated by our team. We also collect reviews and customer feedback, so that even if we are mostly hands-off on how the homeowners run their kitchens we are still able to maintain a level of consistent quality.

Through this three-sided marketplace approach we are hitting multiple birds with one stone: enable hundreds of individuals to turn their home kitchens into ghost kitchens, expand the last mile distribution and customer base of F&B brands, bring faster and lower cost deliveries to customers, and also develop a less costly and more profitable approach to the typical cloud kitchen model for Dishserve.

Why keep it fixed when you can make it flexible for F&B brands to grow

But apart from homeowners fully owning and operating their kitchens, there’s another catch. When it comes to working with F&B brands, we do not charge any fixed monthly operational costs. Our monetisation is all through revenue sharing.

We decided to go this route because we wanted to make it easier for F&B brands to expand without a fixed operating expense, especially with the economic difficulties of operating in the pandemic.

When brands expand they typically incur fixed costs like rent, manpower, electricity, renovation, and by working with Dishserve, they don’t have to pay a single dime for all this, primarily because they are working with our home kitchen network

It also brings benefits to Dishserve as well. By enabling F&B brands to expand and work with more home kitchens in our network, we are also able to reach more customers with them and the amount we share with them also increases.

Also Read: Understanding the economics of food delivery platforms

One can think of it as a flexible model that allows us to work with the ups and downs that come with operating in the F&B industry while also rewarding our business as we grow the network of F&B brands and home kitchens rather than depending on fixed revenue streams

It’s all about enabling growth

And these decisions where we deviated from the typical cloud kitchen model have paid off for Dishserve. We’re able to maintain positive unit economics and make money on every transaction.

The best part is that we work with some of the most prominent restaurant and catering brands as well as two leading cloud kitchens companies, strengthening their last-mile distribution with the 100+ kitchens in our network across Jakarta and the National Capital Region.

So with our approach to cloud kitchens — these catches I’ve mentioned — we’re not just making deliveries more efficient for customers, but also supporting the growth of F&B brands and the livelihood of homeowners across Indonesia

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. This season we are seeking op-eds, analysis and articles on food tech and sustainability. Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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Getting into the coveted club of Unicorns is every entrepreneur’s dream. However, it is no mean task to build a billion-dollar company; it takes many years of investments, efforts and hard work to reach the magic number.

In Southeast Asia, there are more than 10 unicorns and decacorns like Grab, Gojek, Sea Group, Lazada, Traveloka, Bukalapak, OVO and Tokopedia. Many more are on track to become billion-dollar companies. For example, Ninja Van, Carousell, and Zilingo.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been boon for some of these tech giants whose business skyrocketed, but for some others, it was proved disastrous. While it boosted the valuation of some of these unicorns, the pandemic slowed down the growth of some others.

Below is the list of the four Unicorns that have made it to ‘e27 Luminaries‘.

Grab

Grab doesn’t need an introduction. It is the quintessential poster boy of the region’s startup ecosystem.

Founded in 2012 by Anthony Tan and Tan Hooi Ling, Grab was started as ride-hailing company in Malaysia. In order to grow and scale faster, the company later moved its headquarters to Singapore. There was no looking back since., and it scaled many summits and became the market leader in many verticals.

Also Read: Meet the 4 Luminaries startups that made a pivot to tide over COVID-19 crisis

Today, Grab is a super-app platform in Southeast Asia, providing everyday services that matter to consumers. The app provides users access to millions of drivers, merchants, and agents.

Grab offers a wide range of on-demand services in the region, including mobility, food, package and grocery delivery services, mobile payments, and financial services across 398 cities in eight countries.

In April, Grab announced its plans to go public through a SPAC merger with Altimeter Growth Corp., in a deal that values the company at US$39.6 billion, the largest blank-check merger to date.

Over its nine year of existence, Grab has raised US$12.1 billion in funding from 53 investors across 34 rounds. It has also snapped up three companies, namely Bento, iKaaZ and Kudo.

The tech behemoth is currently valued over US$40 billion.

Gojek

Gojek recently hit the headlines when it made official its US$18-billion merger with Tokopedia to form GoTo Group. One of the most valuable startups and a darling of foreign and domestic VCs, Gojek was started as two-wheeler hailing platform in its home country Indonesia.

The company’s rise to a billion-dollar company has been steady. On its journey to the top, it conquered many heights and ventured into new verticals and introduced innovative features.

Gojek aims to be a super-app, along the lines of Grab, by offering multiple service across verticals, such as ride-hailing, finance, e-commerce, and health, among many others.

Founded in 2010 by Kevin Aluwi, Michaelangelo Moran, and Nadiem Makarim (who later quit to become a Minister in Indonesia), Gojek has thus far raised US$53 billion from 32 investors across 13 rounds, and has made 13 acquisitions.

The tech behemoth is currently valued US$10 billion.

Tokopedia

Established in 2009, Tokopedia is an online marketplace that intends to help individuals and business owners to open and manage their own online stores.

Its platform helps users build and manage online stores and a single e-commerce destination for customers. The firm offers a wide range of items — from fashion accessories, beauty and health aids, electronic equipment, food, beverages, to toys, enabling individuals and businesses to open and maintain their stores for free.

Founded by Herman Widjaja, Leontinus Alpha Edison, Melissa Siska Juminto, William Tanuwijaya, Tokopedia has raked in nearly US$2.8 billion from 11 investors across multiple rounds since its inception.

Also Read: Meet the e27 Luminaries startups that are making life easier through tech in these emerging markets

Alibaba, EV Growth, Sequoia India, SoftBank and CyberAgent are among its backers. As per multiple reports, the tech giant is valued between US$8 billion and US$10 billion.

OVO

One of Indonesia’s largest payments and financial technology company, OVO is a mobile app payment system. It provides online payments, rewards and financial services, which are available on 115 million smart devices in more than 300 cities across the archipelago.

It has thousands of merchants all across Indonesia in various categories, including F&B, fashion, beauty, entertainment, transportation, and travel.

The company became Indonesia’s fifth unicorn in 2019.

The company is backed by SoftBank, Lippo and Grab, and last valued at about US$2.9 billion. It has also made two acquisitions.

Last year, there was a report that OVO was in talks for a merger with rival Dana.

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Photo by Marco Secchi on Unsplash

 

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zennya, a mobile healthcare and medical last-mile logistics startup in the Philippines, said today it has recently secured US$1.2 million in a funding round led by local VC firms Foxmont Capital Partners, Ignite House of Innovation, and DayOne Capital Ventures.

The round also saw participation from several prominent families and angels from the Philippines and Thailand, as per an official statement.

The proceeds from this round will be used to expand zennya’s service to all major cities in the Philippines. The company is currently operating in Metro Manila and launching in Cebu by June.

Also Read: Solving multiple medtech problems with a single device powered by AI

“We look forward to expanding this year to provide nationwide coverage while preparing for regional expansion, doubling down on our end-to-end home health service delivery technology platform,” said David Foote, founder and CEO of zennya.

A portion of the funds will also go into talent acquisition, technology, and business development as zennya continues to expand its strategic partnerships and integration with leading hospitals, diagnostic centers, and insurance providers.

Launched in 2016 as an on-demand managed ecosystem and marketplace for home wellness and medical services, zennya has evolved to become a “one-touch healthcare super grid” that delivers hospital-quality care at home.

In other words, Zennya has created a virtual hospital ecosystem through integration of diagnostic laboratories, health maintenance organisations, and pharmaceuticals, wth a delivery network of doctors, nurses, therapists, motorcycle drivers, cars, and ambulances.

This network enables patients to receive healthcare services in their homes and offices previously only available in hospital and clinical settings.

It is basically a full-stack technology platform integrating, online healthcare training, medical records, last-mile cold-chain logistics, mobile diagnostics, tele-health, and just-in-time delivery of healthcare products and tools.

Through its proprietary in-house technology platform the company manages every aspect of the medical supply chain and service delivery with direct digital integration with its medical partners to reduce errors, counterfeit medication, and targets to deliver patient outcomes that exceed traditional brick and mortar operations.

At present, the platform also offers consumer services, including COVID-19 tests, blood tests, vaccinations, pharmaceutical deliveries, telehealth consultations, corporate health services allowing for on-demand pop up clinics, and B2B services enabling hospitals and clinic partners to deliver continuity of care.

zennya claims to have doubled its m-o-m revenue in Q1 2021, with more than 100 per cent y-o-y growth from 2020. It also said to have completed more than 500,000 services to date.

Also Read: Here are 5 reasons to expand your business to the Philippines

For the period of Q4 of 2020 to Q1 of 2021, zennya boasted of posting an 84 per cent growth in mobile number activations, 110 per cent growth in the number of patients served, and a 121 per cent growth in the number of repeat customers.

“As the Philippines’ needs rapidly evolve in this new normal, we believe zennya’s commitment to quality and technical excellence will set the standard for delivering healthcare and wellness to people’s homes for many years to come,” adds Franco Varona, Managing Partner of Foxmont, an early-stage VC and backer of Kumu, Kravers Canteen, and Edukasyon.ph.

According to Ignite House of Innovation CEO Andre Yap, “zennya allows us to connect all the disparate parts of the healthcare value chain into a one-touch healthcare supergrid and create 10x-type wins for patients, doctors and care providers, hospitals and clinics, pharmacies, pharmacos, insurers and corporations and employees across the board.”

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Image Credit: zennya

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