HappyFresh raises USD 65mil to fuel ambitious growth plans

Indonesian headquartered online grocery platform, HappyFresh has bagged USD 65mil in Series D.

It was led by Naver Financial Corporation and Gafina B.V., followed by STIC, LB, and Mirae Asset Indonesia and Singapore. Existing investors such as Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund and Z Venture Capital have also participated. The round exceeded initial targets, due to significant demand from new and existing investors.

Explosion in demand for e-groceries:
Over the past 18 months, HappyFresh has been experiencing an unprecedented growth. Thousands of families have turned to HappyFresh as the safest way to get their groceries delivered during the pandemic.

Guillem Segarra, CEO, HappyFresh said, “We have been on a mission for the past 6 years to provide freshly handpicked groceries at the highest quality to our customers. Especially over the past years, all our efforts have been put into being there for all the families that have trusted us to bring your groceries to your doorstep safely”

HappyFresh has moved further towards achieving long-term profitability in a time when it’s proven challenging to sustain a business. In 2020, traffic has grown by factors of 10-20x across the 3 countries it operates in, which has translated into growth in top-line as well as both new and repeat customers and improved economics, providing confidence to investors that HappyFresh is in a great position to seize a tremendous opportunity within the groceries space in Southeast Asia.

“We see a big shift in customers’ behaviour; retention and frequency rates have significantly increased while the overall basket size has been consistently growing. We attribute this to a major shift in share of wallet from offline to online, which is here to stay.” Segarra explained further.

Southeast Asia online economy has hit an inflexion point, powered by rapid adoption and fundamental shifts in consumer behaviour. With a corresponding retail market size of $350bn, grocery retail segment in Southeast Asia presents a sizeable and growing market opportunity for HappyFresh.

E-grocery is rising rapidly across Asia in particular Southeast Asia; younger population in urban regions with higher income and expenditure have driven early adoption while in the past year, mass market adoption has massively accelerated the overall penetration of digital platforms like HappyFresh.

Plans for the funds:
When asked about what the funds will be focused on, Segarra said, “We have been extremely busy scaling up our operations across the different markets while maintaining our quality and safety standards. Our shoppers and drivers have been the heroes and the entire team worked tirelessly to cope with all the demand. We are just at the beginning of our journey and with all this support received, the road ahead is really exciting”. HappyFresh has increased its fleet by the thousands during the past months in order to fulfil the increase in demand.

“Continuing to focus our efforts on providing a convenient and safe service, we will be enhancing our existing operating model together with our partnerships we already have with supermarket retailers across the region. This will unlock additional operational efficiency, higher service levels and quality controls to improve customer experience further. We want our customers to get all the groceries they need at the freshest condition and at an even faster speed, ensuring an effortless online grocery shopping experience.” Segarra added.

The team has also put in place plans to improve service offerings such as more payment methods, better user experience and assortment, bringing HappyFresh’s service to more families in each country across the region.

“The strong management team and unique service offering will enable HappyFresh and its partners to successfully navigate these unprecedented times, with best-in-class customer experience and safety, building loyalty and long-term market leadership positions.” Peter Na, Director of Southeast Asia Investments at Naver and board member of HappyFresh stated.

"While we continue to help more families fulfil their grocery needs, we are also working closely with our partners to expand into more areas which include Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, Rawang, Butterworth, Kedah, Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan and areas within East Malaysia. In terms of higher service quality, we have extended our payment assortment to DuitNow for the ease of doorstep payments, adding to the comprehensive cashless payment methods available, including credit & debit card payments, bank transfers and e-wallet options such as GrabPay and Boost. Moreover, no minimum spend initiatives for repeat customers and express services will be introduced in the coming months." said Hu Hun Hui, Managing Director of HappyFresh Malaysia.

The HappyFresh app is available for download on the Apple AppStore and Google Play Store. For more information on HappyFresh, please visit www.happyfresh.my.

This content is provided by iCart Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

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