FunNow, the Taiwan-based app that lets customers ebook actions on-demand in 5 Asian international locations, is rising its attain in Southeast Asia by means of a merger with restaurant reserving app Eatigo. Phrases of the deal had been undisclosed, however FunNow CEO TK Chen says it’s the largest post-COVID O2O M&A deal in Southeast Asia.
As a part of the deal, Eatigo is now a key shareholder in FunNow Group. Eatigo CEO Michael Cluzel will be a part of FunNow’s board, whereas Chen will proceed serving as president and CEO of the group.
Based in 2015, FunNow has 2.5 million customers and makes use of a dynamic pricing technique that lets companies on its platform selected to supply totally different costs to clients primarily based on provide and demand. Since its launching Taiwan, FunNow has expanded to Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand. It has grown by means of a collection of acquisitions, concluding Malaysia restaurant reserving platform and SaaS supplier TABLEAPP and Taiwanese household exercise reserving platform Niceday. Since its inception, FunNow has raised $22.5 million from traders together with the company enterprise arms of PChome, KKday and Wistron.
FunNow and Eatigo’s founders
Eatigo was based in Bangkok in 2013 and makes use of yield administration methods to assist 4,000 eating places ebook clients throughout off-peak hours at reductions as much as 50% off. It operates in Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines and has a consumer base of 5 million. Its traders embrace TripAdvisor.
Chen tells TechCrunch that the 2 corporations determined to merge as a result of mixed they’ll have a bigger financial scale, whereas protecting their operational prices low. “F&B is sort of an vital sector for life-style and FunNow is a multi-category life-style platform,” says Chen. “We wish to concentrate on and put extra sources in F&B since it’s the largest life-style class.”
Chen provides that the merger will double FunNow’s income. The FunNow and Eatigo apps will proceed working individually, whereas the 2 corporations’ enterprise operations will likely be mixed.