1. Startups

AC Ventures Leads Series A+ Funding for SaaS F&B Startup Malaysia Food Market Hub

Other investors include Go-Ventures and East Ventures. This funding supports the expansion of the Food Market Hub to Indonesia

AC Ventures led Series A+ funding for SaaS startup Malaysia Food Market Hub (FMH) of $8,5 million (over 121 billion IDR). Following the acquisition of these funds, FMH's valuation is estimated to be close to $40 million. FMH is a platform provider that simplifies and automates operations Back-end for the food and beverage (F&B) business.

In this round, AC Ventures invested through a special fund in Malaysia called Penjana Kapital Fund. Also new investors are East Ventures, Velocity Ventures, Capital Code, and several angel investors. Past investors participating include Go-Ventures, SIG, and 500 Global.

In total, in the Series A and Series A+ rounds, FMH received fresh funds of $12,5 million (more than 179 billion Rupiah) due to the company's claimed very fast growth and the impetus for accelerated digitization in the F&B sector.

This funding will enable FMH to accelerate its expansion plans into Indonesia, penetrate deeper into the Malaysian market, and strengthen its presence in Singapore and Thailand by 2022.

In an official statement, CEO Food Market Hub Anthony See said, the platform built by FMH has helped many F&B businesses reduce their food costs and waste. Not only that, it helps them thrive, especially during the difficult times caused by this pandemic.

“We have seen a significant increase in demand for our solutions as more and more businesses recognize the value of technology in enabling them to achieve greater efficiencies – especially in today's evolving business climate,” said See.

Founded in 2017, the FMH platform automates the purchasing process and inventory tracking, helping F&B businesses minimize waste while managing food and inventory costs more efficiently.

By leveraging FMH, F&B restaurants can easily order from their existing and new suppliers while automatically syncing data from Point of Sales (POS), inventory and accounting systems for procurement decision making on one platform. In addition, other integrations into third-party software, providing comprehensive data real-time for business owners so that they can manage their business efficiently.

Today, many businesses have been forced to digitize in order to address the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since early 2020, FMH has experienced exponential growth, doubling its active users to 5.000 with an overall retention rate of 87%. Its total annual order value has more than quadrupled in the past 12 months to $600 million in October 2021.

FMH users mostly use the platform on a daily basis to process 90% of all purchase transactions, showing how important FMH is to their daily operations. Some FMH users come from cafe chains, large restaurant groups, and franchises, such as The Coffee Academics, Din Tai Fung, Yum Brands, KFC, and Pizza Hut.

The company recently expanded its offerings by launching a payment service in Malaysia, enabling F&B businesses to seamlessly send invoices and collect payments within the platform.

“Our mission is to support disruptions that will create value through their technological innovations, especially in the ASEAN region. Food Market Hub's track record in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan has shown strong potential to accelerate the transformation of the F&B business. We look forward to their continued growth across the region and beyond,” said AC Ventures Partner Ng Yi Chung.

This year, FMH is one of three winners of HLB Launchpad 2020 collaborating with Hong Leong Bank on a pilot project. The company recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Saladplate, marketplace for F&B and hospitality, to help local businesses source F&B digitally.

Also, partnering with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) in the virtual Go-eCommerce Expo 2021 to encourage local businesses to adopt eCommerce. It also marks the start of a partnership with Southeast Asia's first Hospitality and Travel technology investor, Velocity Ventures to deepen the foothold of the FMH F&B industry and expand into new markets rapidly.

Outside of Malaysia, FMH already has a footprint in other Asian markets such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore. With its recent expansion into Indonesia, the company now has a presence in six countries.

The company will continue to support the digitization of Southeast Asian businesses with deeper regional coverage and a desire to enter new markets such as Vietnam. Over the next year, FMH plans to provide financing tools to support the recovery of the regional F&B business.

SaaS Solutions in Indonesia

In the AC Ventures portfolio, there are also startups with similar solutions for the F&B industry, namely Essence of Global Solutions (ESB). ESB is a provider software culinary business operational system all-in-one linking front-end, Back-end, consumers and supply chain partners for restaurants.

In general, according to reports MSME Empowerment Report 2021 published DSInnovate, there are several basic problems currently experienced by SMEs in Indonesia, including:

To overcome these problems, 83% of MSME actors claim to use services from digital startups. From this hypothesis, the founders are passionate about presenting a variety of products with different value propositions. Currently there are dozens of startups that present various types of SaaS in this segment.

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