KAMEREO, a B2B purchasing and sourcing platform for restaurants in Vietnam, has raised US$500,000 in a seed round backed by local venture capital firm Velocity Ventures Vietnam and Japan’s Genesia Ventures. The funding will be used to strengthen its service offerings and expand into other regions and industries.
Launched by Taku Tanaka in June last year, Ho Chi Minh City-based KAMEREO banks on technology to streamline what it describes as a tedious process of purchasing and sourcing, which often involves manual work, in restaurants.
“We aim to use technology to solve the inefficiency of purchasing and sourcing, so that all restaurants can focus on their core business, which is to offer the best dining experience for customers,” the company said in a statement.
The startup operates as a one-stop platform for restaurant owners and suppliers to connect. Currently, its platform has more than 120 suppliers and 200 restaurants registered.
The funding comes as Vietnam’s F&B industry is forecasted to post one of the highest growth rates among Asian countries by 2020 on the back of higher spending on food and beverages by Vietnamese consumers, according to local media citing a report by market research firm Business Monitor International (BMI).
Another report quoted by Vietnamese newspaper VN Express also showed that Vietnamese spend more than a third of their income on food and beverages. That spending is more than what they allocate for education and utilities, according to market research firm Vietnam Report.
The report added that the entry of technologies, such as phone apps, has made the F&D market more exciting in recent years as users now have the ability to locate restaurants easily and have their order delivered right at their doorsteps.
The country’s Ministry of Industry and Trade estimated that consumption of food and beverage products accounts for about 15% of Vietnam’s GDP. The rate is expected to even rise in the future.
Tanaka, the company CEO, told KrASIA that the company is planning to raise Series A round of some million dollars in late 2019 or 2020 to expand to other regions in ASEAN. “Our goal in 2019 is to have major position in Vietnamese market. We plan to expand to Hanoi late in 2019 and other regions in ASEAN in 2020,” he said.
Editor: Ben Jiang