Line Man Wongnai, an on-demand food delivery service in Thailand, is considering an IPO on a Thai stock exchange or in the United States in 2025, the company’s CEO and co-founder Yod Chinsupakul said in a statement. exclusive interview with TechCrunch.
Line Man Wongnai has not yet finalized the location of its IPO launch, but a dual listing in Thailand and the United States is not ruled out, Chinsupakul said.
The company is backed by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC; Z Holdings, a joint venture formed by SoftBank and South Korean internet company Naver; and BRV Asia, among others. It has raised over $372 million in total and is valued at over $1 billion.
“We are focused on continuing to execute and restructure our business as key priorities ahead of a potential IPO, and we will continue to evaluate our capital structure and financing needs, including various options fundraising,” 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 ride-hailing services, and a messaging app. Then in 2023, the company acquired Rabbit Line Pay (RLP), an online and offline payment platform, and FoodStory, a Thai point-of-sale (POS) startup. The company says the acquisitions have strengthened its revenues and expanded its customer base.
The merger with Line Man was an important step for Wongnai, as Line is Thailand’s most popular messaging app: used by over 90% of Thais, the app has over 50 million users in the country , Chinsupakul said. According to the CEO, what sets the startup apart from its competitors is its ability to leverage Line’s huge user base, as many of the app’s users choose to make payments through the app Payment Line linked.
Today, the company offers everything from food and grocery delivery to restaurant reviews, a payments platform, merchant POS and ride-sharing services, taking on competitors like Grab in the country.
“Our history has proven that we are agile and have the ability to execute strategic mergers and acquisitions. We are always evaluating potential investment opportunities in pursuit of our strategic objectives, which may include potential investments and/or mergers and acquisitions if this supports our long-term objectives. We are very open,” Chinsupakul said.
The CEO said the company intends to expand its point-of-sale businesses for merchants and payment services.
“These other two businesses are relatively smaller than our food delivery business (because we are a latecomer), so we want to grow them several times,” Chinsupakul said. The company will continue to invest in the development of its technical team, particularly on the data and AI side, he added.
Line Man Wongnai faces tough competition in Thailand’s food delivery business 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 substantial market share of 56%, followed closely by Line Man Wongnai with 53%. Shopee comes in at No. 3, followed by Siam Commercial Bank’s (SBC) Robinhood in April 2023, according to a Statista report.
Room to grow in Thailand
Chinsupakul highlighted that 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%.
Regarding ride-hailing services, Chinsupakul said Thais still use on-demand taxi services through apps, but the online-only market could be bigger. User penetration of ride-hailing apps in the market is expected to reach 19.8% this year, according to Statista.
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 for the consumer, but Line Man Wongnai’s services are aimed at both consumers and merchants. Rather, we are a combination of Meituan and WeChat Pay.
The company wants to focus on the Thai market at this stage and has no plans to expand to other Southeast Asian countries before going public.
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