Line Man Wongnai, an on-demand food delivery service in Thailand, is considering an initial public offering on a Thai or U.S. exchange in 2025, company CEO and co-founder Yod Chinsupakul said in a exclusive interview with TechCrunch.
Wongnai Lineman It has not yet decided where to launch the IPO, but a dual listing in Thailand and the United States is not out of the question, Chinsupakul said.
The company is backed by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC; Z Holdings, a joint venture between SoftBank and South Korean internet company Naver; and BRV Asia, among others. It has raised over $372 million in total and has a valuation of over $1 billion.
“We are focused on continued business execution and restructuring as key priorities ahead of the potential IPO, and will continue to evaluate our capital structure and financing needs, including various fundraising options,” Chinsupakul said.
The company’s differentiators, according to Chinsupakul, are its strategic partnerships with Line and its understanding of customer behavior, local merchants, delivery personnel and the regulatory environment.
Wongnai started as a restaurant review platform in 2010. In 2020, it merged with line man, which offers food and grocery delivery, on-demand transportation, and a messaging app. Then in 2023, the company acquired Rabbit Line Payment (RLP)an online and offline payment platform, and food history, a Thai point-of-sale (POS) startup. The company says the acquisitions strengthened its revenue and expanded its customer base.
The merger with Line Man was an important milestone for Wongnai, as Line is the most popular messaging app in Thailand The app, used by more than 90% of Thais, has more than 50 million users in the country, Chinsupakul said. What sets the startup apart from its competitors, according to the CEO, is its ability to tap into Line’s huge user base, as many of the app’s users choose to make payments through the linked Line payments app.
Today, the company offers everything from food and grocery delivery and restaurant reviews, to a payments platform, POS for merchants and ride-sharing, taking on competitors like Grab in the country.
“Our history has shown that we are agile and have the ability to execute strategic mergers and acquisitions. We always evaluate potential investment opportunities in pursuit of our strategic objectives, which may include potential investments and/or mergers and acquisitions if they support our longer-term objectives. “We are very open,” Chinsupakul said.
The CEO said the company intends to grow its merchant POS business and payments service.
“Those other two companies are relatively smaller than our food delivery business. [as we are a latecomer], that’s why we want to multiply them,” said Chinsupakul. The company will continue to invest in the growth of its technology team, particularly on the data and artificial intelligence side, he added.
Line Man Wongnai faces stiff competition in the food delivery space in Thailand from Singapore’s Grab and Indonesia’s GoTo, which have their own super apps and also offer e-commerce services.
Currently, GrabFood leads the food delivery market in Thailand with a significant market share of 56%, closely followed by Line Man Wongnai with 53%. Shopee is ranked No. 3, followed by Siam Commercial Bank (SCB)’s Robinhood in April 2023, according to a Statista report.
Room to grow in Thailand
Chinsupakul noted that the penetration of online food and grocery delivery is low in Thailand and there is ample room for growth. As of February 2024, the penetration rate of online food delivery in Thailand stood at 27.14%, while that of grocery delivery was 17.34%.
As for ride-hailing services, Chinsupakul said people in Thailand still use on-demand taxi services through apps, but the online-only market could be larger. The user penetration of ride-hailing apps in the market is expected to reach 19.8% this year, by statesman.
When asked if the company aims to become a super app like Grab and GoTo, Chinsupakul said Line Man Wongnai is aiming higher. “A super app is only for the consumer, but Line Man Wongnai’s services are for both consumers and merchants. “We are more of a combination of Meituan and WeChat Pay.”
The company wants to focus on the Thai market at the moment and is not considering expanding to other Southeast Asian countries before going public.