QueQ, currently operational in Thailand and Malaysia, will soon expand the footprint to cover Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong

He was fed up with the experiences of waiting in serpentine queues at local banks in his home country Thailand. A Computer Engineer with experience building a software startup, Rungsun Joh Pomprasith thought to himself that there must be a better way for people to manage queue than to stand or wait in a line for long time.

“As I was contemplating the idea, I was tasked by a restaurant in Bangkok to develop a queuing solution. You probably know that Bangkok is a crowded city and sometimes can be more hectic than Kuala Lumpur. This is how QueQ happened,” he told e27.

Launched in September 2015, QueQ is a mobile app (available on iOS and Android) that enables customers to queue for their spot in a dining or retail outlet with the touch of a button, from the comfort of their own home. Each outlet has the option to customise its distance access to their queuing tickets, from as near as 100 metres up to tens of kilometres ahead. The queue length will be updated via the app in real time and once coming close to the user’s queue, an alert is automatically sent, informing the user to return to the outlet on time.

“QueQ helps you to line up virtually at your favourite restaurant or beverage outlet. It is also a lifestyle platform that addresses the pain points of wasted time when people have to stand around aimlessly waiting for their order, even after joining a long queue to order and pay,” Pomprasith (CEO) explained.

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“With QueQ, you can pre-order through your smartphone, make payment, and then spend your time doing other things that matter till your boba tea is ready to be collected from your favourite outlet. QueQ is the perfect solution for bubble/boba tea fans,” he added.

At the moment, QueQ targets F&B, hospitals and clinics, banks, insurance service centres, utilities and public service points, and events.

The startup recently secured US$2.8 million in Series A round of  funding from local startup investor True Incube and South Korea’s Bon Angels Venture Partner. Along with this, QueQ also announced its exposition to Malaysia, where it has just launched its key partner programme, with restaurants such as K Fry Urban Korean chain, Bar-B-Q Plaza, Kurin, Ho Kow Hainam Kopitiam, Yut Kee Restaurant, Dotty’s Pastries and Coffee.

“Malaysia was chosen as it shares many similarities with Thailand — both Thais and Malaysians love food and in-trend beverages, retail shopping and simply spending time in malls partly because they want to seek refuge from the extremely hot, humid weather and unpredictable rain. The pain point of queuing for banking services and hospitals as well as clinics are pretty much a dreaded way of life for Malaysians,” he said.

In Thailand alone, there are over 600 restaurant partners, CIMB bank, 22 hospitals and large carnivals and sales events, where crowd is in excess of 10,000.

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“We see massive opportunity in driving Thailand’s and Malaysia’s urban community forward, and bridging the time-gap (by being able to do other more useful things rather than standing/waiting in a line) between wanting a product/ service and getting it. We started out helping our urban communities in their trips to restaurants, and have now included trips to the hospital, bank and more. We are helping to change lifestyles,” he added.

The company now plans to expand footprints to cover three more markets in APAC — Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong.

Commenting on the business model, Prompasith said the app is free for customers to download but merchant partners pay a small monthly fee. “In turn, merchants are able to cut operational costs by partly automating their operations. We also provide a higher level of customer experience and point of differentiation for their brand.”

QueQ is back in the market with plans to raise fresh funding round to fuel growth. “Managing costs and adequate financing are key. We are geared towards a strong growth trajectory over the next three years,” he concluded.

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