F&B marketplace Supplybunny nails US$300K seed funding from Gobi Partners

• Platform enables direct orders from restaurant, cafe owners
• Funds to be used to establish local teams, enhance marketing

 
MALAYSIAN online food and beverage (F&B) supplies marketplace Supplybunny has announced the completion of an RM1.2-million (US$300,000) seed investment by Shanghai-based venture capital firm Gobi Partners.
 
Supplybunny, which was launched only in June as a platform for restaurants and cafes to source and order supplies, said the funding will be used to establish local teams and enhance its marketing efforts.
 
“As a dedicated marketplace for F&B supplies, Supplybunny adds significant value for restaurateurs by enabling them to order all of their F&B supplies on a single platform, online,” said founder and chief executive officer Tham Keng Yew.
 
“This saves time and eliminates the hassle of having to contact multiple suppliers at a time,” he said in an official statement.
 
By providing a platform that enables direct orders from restaurant and cafe owners, Supplybunny said it can streamline business operations by simplifying the billing process and eliminating the need to manually collate orders, so that suppliers can focus more on growing their business rather than chasing invoices.
 
It also works with businesses to help them set up an online presence, allowing them to attract new customers and create new streams of revenue. This affords suppliers a wider reach, while also reducing associated costs and manpower.
 
Supplybunny has also formed a strategic partnership with Gobi Partner portfolio company Offpeak. A restaurant reservation platform, Kuala Lumpur-based Offpeak will introduce its existing base of over 1,600 partner restaurants in Malaysia to Supplybunny’s platform.
 
When asked to elaborate on how the funding will be used, Tham said that the main idea would be to make its presence in the Klang Valley more concrete.
 
“Supplybunny is starting out within the Klang Valley, linking up over 1,000 restaurants and cafes with local suppliers,” he told Digital News Asia (DNA) via email.
 
“The nature of our business is such that most purchases are localised, and the scope of this investment round is to facilitate this vision within the Klang Valley.
 
“We have further ambitions to be a regional player, following the restaurant footprint of our partner Offpeak and will be raising subsequent rounds for that purpose,” he added.
 
The link to Offpeak is deeper than just tapping its base of restaurants. Tham (pic) credits Offpeak for the idea behind Supplybunny.
 
“They are the ones with two years’ experience talking to small and medium F&B owners, and one of the major issues they have been hearing about is the difficulty in managing the ordering of supplies,” he told DNA.
 
He described the partnership with Offpeak as a strategic one in which Supplybunny will be the only B2B (business-to-business) e-commerce platform that Offpeak will provide access to for its partner restaurants.
 
Tham was also the founder of SocialWalk, which described itself as a B2B platform that matched businesses to trade shows, and which he has since left.
 
Founded in 2002 and with six offices across Asia, Gobi has invested in over 150 portfolio companies across China and South-East Asia.
 
“Supplybunny offers a functional solution which fills an industry gap in reducing operational cost issues that suppliers regularly face while also providing a one-stop marketplace for restaurateurs to conveniently get all of their F&B supplies,” said its managing partner Thomas G. Tsao.
 
“By providing meaningful benefits to both restaurants and suppliers in such a simple way, we believe that Supplybunny is well-positioned for success,” he said in an official statement.
 
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