Line Man Wongnai, an on-demand food delivery service in Thailand, is considering an IPO on a Thai stock exchange or the U.S. in 2025, the company’s CEO and co-founder Yod Chinsupakul said in an exclusive interview with TechCrunch.
Line Man Wongnai has yet to determine where the IPO will take place, but a dual listing in Thailand and the US 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 a total of more than $372 million and is valued at more than $1 billion.
“We are focused on further unwinding 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, Chinsupakul said, are its strategic partnerships with Line, as well as its understanding of customer behavior, local dealers, delivery personnel and the regulatory environment.
Wongnai started in 2010 as a restaurant review platform. In 2020, it merged with Line Man, which offers food and grocery delivery, on-demand ride-hailing and a messenger 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 increased its revenue and broadened its customer base.
The merger with Line Man was a significant milestone for Wongnai as Line is Thailand’s most popular messaging app – used by more than 90% of Thais and has over 50 million users in the country, Chinsupakul said. What sets the startup apart from its competitors, according to the CEO, is its ability to leverage Line’s huge user base, as many of the app’s users choose to make payments through the linked Line payment app.
Today, the company offers everything from food and grocery delivery and restaurant reviews to a payments platform, merchant POS and ride-hailing services – taking on rivals like Grab in the country.
“Our history has shown that we are flexible and able to execute strategic mergers and acquisitions. In pursuing our strategic goals, we always evaluate potential investment opportunities. This 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 aims to expand its merchant POS business and payment service.
“These other two companies are relatively smaller than our grocery delivery business [as we are a latecomer]That’s why we want to increase it manifold,” Chinsupakul said. The company will continue to invest in expanding its technology team, particularly on the data and AI 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%. According to a report by Statista, Shopee is ranked 3rd as of April 2023, followed by Siam Commercial Bank (SBC)’s Robinhood.
Room to grow in Thailand
Chinsupakul pointed out that the penetration of online grocery and food delivery in Thailand is low and there is plenty of room for growth. As of February 2024, the penetration rate of online grocery delivery in Thailand was 27.14%, while that of grocery delivery was 17.34%.
Chinsupakul said that when it comes to ride-hailing services, people in Thailand still use on-demand taxi services through apps, but the online-only market could be larger. According to Statista, ride-hailing app penetration is expected to reach 19.8% this year.
When asked if the company aims to become a super app like Grab and GoTo, Chinsupakul said Line Man Wongnai has higher goals. “A super app is only for the consumer side, but Line Man Wongnai’s services are aimed at 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 this time and is not considering expansion into other Southeast Asian countries before the IPO.