KUALA LUMPUR: Homegrown tech startup StoreHub, a platform that enables restaurants and retailers to automate and grow their business, has raised US$13.5 million (RM60.7 million) in a pre-Series B fundraising round led by 500 Global with participation from existing investors Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, OSK and others.
StoreHub, co-founded in 2013 by Wai Hong Fong and Congyu Ling and headquartered in Malaysia, started as an early pioneer of cloud-based SaaS Point of Sales (POS) systems in the region.
Today, the platform powers over 15,000 paying retail and restaurant outlets in Malaysia and across Southeast Asia, and has expanded its offering to include QR-based table ordering, loyalty, automated customer engagement, and more.
“With ‘revenge travel’ and ‘revenge dining’ continuing to drive consumer behaviour in Malaysia and across the region, retail and F&B business owners are looking for ways to improve operational efficiency and maximise their revenue per customer. Our platform automates ordering, payments, and customer engagement,“ said StoreHub CEO and co-founder Wai Hong Fong.
He said it’s like having 10 extra staff members that work 24/7 for you with zero error. Business owners make more money and get more time for their families, or to expand even more.
“Here in Malaysia, we have seen businesses transform themselves to adapt to the new normal. Labour shortages and more demanding and digitally-savvy consumers have increasingly impacted the industry with restaurants and mamak eateries especially being hit hard in recent times. With this, it has become even more critical for businesses to integrate technology into their operations,“ Fong added.
In the last 12 months, StoreHub has processed over 128 million transactions worth over RM7.2 Billion in gross transaction volume (GTV), a 40% increase over the previous year and a sign of the resurgent times. New paying stores coming onto the platform have also seen a five-time growth from the year before. Most of all, acquisition costs for new customers have improved to near break even within the first month. To match the surging demand, StoreHub has been expanding its team accordingly, bringing in over 100 new hires in the last six months.
In 2021, StoreHub reached close to net profitability by growing average customer revenue throughout the pandemic. The latest funding round will be used to continue meeting demand while maintaining positive unit economics, and investing in technology innovation to deepen the value for each customer.
“We joined their first round in 2016, with a small US$150,000 cheque. Fast forward to today, we have invested more than US$10 million cumulatively on top of that,“ shared 500 Global managing partner Khailee Ng.
“Considering similar companies like Toast are valued at US$10.5 billion, StoreHub already has approximately a quarter of Toast’s customer size with another estimated two million more potential businesses in Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines to onboard,“ said Ng.
Since its launch, StoreHub has served a wide range of SME merchants in Malaysia alone, ranging from locally-grown multistore cafes like VCR and Nasken Coffee (a homegrown chain of cafes with 18 stores across the East Coast) to restaurants like Grub by Ahong & Friends and WoodFire.
