Singapore – Tech-enabled coffee chain Flash Coffee has announced that they have completed its Series B financing round, raising US$50m in funding. This will be used then to expand its footprint across the Asia-Pacific region to serve high-quality specialty coffee.
Flash Coffee aims to double down its current expansion in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong and South Korea, as well keeping updated on their own technology and product innovation and further developing the sales performance of existing stores.
The coffee chain will continue expanding deeper into its most mature market, Indonesia, where the fast-growing middle class is rapidly driving coffee consumption in Southeast Asia’s most populous country.
Following the company’s successful entry into Bandung – its first expansion outside of a capital city – with 11 outlets across the metropolitan area of over 8.8 million inhabitants, Flash Coffee will be officially launching in the vibrant city of Surabaya in July 2023.
The funding round was led by White Star Capital, with support from Delivery Hero, Geschwister Oetker, and Conny & Co.
David Brunier, founder and CEO of Flash Coffee, said, “We are grateful to have the continued backing of our shareholders in this financing round. With 100% of our 92 stores in Indonesia being profitable, we have found a solid product market fit and are eager to expand our presence into additional cities in Indonesia to further drive sustainable growth.”
He added, “Offering a product that people love and following our ongoing trajectory of topline and profitability improvements, we are confident that we will reach our overarching goal of being profitable on a group level next year.”
Singapore – Amadea Choo, formerly the head of marketing at SHOPLINE, has been appointed by Flash Coffee as its new head of marketing in Singapore. In her new role, she will be overseeing the development and implementation of Flash Coffee’s marketing strategies and play a key role in directing attention towards their brand.
During her stint at SHOPLINE, Choo led and grew a high-performing team that drove growth and awareness of SHOPLINE. She is also the founder and CEO of business consulting VFPLUSC, and was also the lead for the Singapore Fashion Week at Mercury Marketing & Communications.
She brings into Flash Coffee a proven track record of driving growth and success in various industries, including e-commerce, fashion, retail, and start-ups that come with her remarkable decade of experience in the field.
Speaking on her appointment, she said, “Marketing is more than creative ideas and campaigns but being able to use the different facets of Marketing as levers to solve problems for human beings. Flash Coffee is a lifestyle brand that transforms lives and I am thrilled to be joining the team in this dynamic season of growth to share our mission with more people. It also gives me great pleasure to join hands with a highly competent senior leadership team to scale the business in a tech-driven manner.”
Choo’s appointment follows the recent brand campaign of Flash Coffee alongside plant milk startup OATSIDE, which encourages customers to try out alternative milk options.
Singapore – Coffee chain Flash Coffee has announced a brand partnership with plant milk startup OATSIDE, encouraging customers to try out alternative milk options.
The partnership, done under its #DareToGoVegan campaign, sees Flash Coffee customers getting complimentary oat milk upgrades this January. Said campaign will roll out in selected stores in Singapore, Thailand, and South Korea.
Customers who purchase an oat milk drink are entitled to a raffle spin of their own gachapon machine, where they can win prizes such as exclusive kooky OATSIDE merchandise to one week’s worth of free coffee.
The new year updates come months after Flash Coffee welcomed Bjoern Seeber as its new director of operations in APAC. Moreover, it also teamed up with CleanHub as it eyes to be a plastic-neutral brand.
Singapore – Flash Coffee, the tech-enabled coffee chain based in Singapore, has appointed Bjoern Seeber as its director of operations in Asia-Pacific, where he will be overlooking directives from demand planning and procurement to retail operations across all markets at Flash Coffee.
He was recently the vice president for logistics and fulfilment at instant grocery and retail delivery JOKR. Prior to that, he also served many roles in SoftBank Group, Delivery Hero, and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants.
Speaking on his appointment, he said, “The challenges for any operations team are immense in this post-pandemic world, which makes me even more motivated to create something strong and long-lasting. I want to help build an operations team within Flash Coffee that’s proud of its outstanding performance and is fun to work in.”
The appointment comes after Flash Coffee’s recent developments in the past few months, with opening new branches in Japan and South Korea, as well as securing a US$15m funding for its Asia-Pacific expansion.
Singapore – Tech-enabled coffee brand Flash Coffee has partnered with green start-up CleanHub, with the objective of moving their brand towards being a plastic-neutral one. Through the partnership, for every Flash Coffee purchase, the coffee chain works with CleanHub and its global network of plastic collection projects to recover the equivalent amount of plastic before it reaches the oceans.
In November 2021, Flash Coffee embarked on a mission to neutralise its plastic impact for all past, present and future purchases and have committed to recover over 80,000 kilograms of plastic waste to date in collaboration with CleanHub.
Flash Coffee and CleanHub believe that channelling collective power is key to creating long-term positive impact on the environment, and with Flash Coffee’s latest app update, customers can now opt in to play a pivotal role in the coffee chain’s sustainability journey.
For David Brunier, CEO and founder of Flash Coffee, sustainability is an incredibly important topic for Flash Coffee, and that their CleanHub collaboration that goes beyond plastic neutrality is just the beginning of their journey. He also stated that they are glad to be able to include their customers in their mission, and harness this collective power to create a larger positive environmental impact that recovers more plastic and leads to cleaner oceans.
“Our team remains committed to protecting the environment and minimising our impact wherever possible, and we are consistently reviewing supply chain upstream and downstream processes, product designs, in-store initiatives and beyond to understand how we can do more. We look forward to unveiling more sustainability-focused campaigns and partnerships with like-minded brands in the future,” Brunier said.
Meanwhile, Joel Tasche, CEO and founder of CleanHub, commented, “We are building a future where plastic is too valuable to waste. So far, we have enabled the recovery of over one million kilograms of plastic waste and we are connecting more than 100 brand partners to collection hubs in Asia. By engaging with us, brands are not only making an important environmental commitment, but also having a huge social impact. Thanks to Flash Coffee, we can help set up robust collection infrastructure that not only keeps plastic out of the ocean but also provides dignified jobs for hundreds of people.”
In addition, Flash Coffee Japan will make a move to switch to paper cups for iced drinks this month. These paper cups are thinly coated with recyclable PE plastic to meet stringent quality standards that hold up over time against condensation, and ensure the best possible customer experience. The initiative will be piloted first in Flash Coffee Japan, and rolled out across the wider region this year.
This month, we saw how the community is eager to have a better year in marketing, with a slew of our What’s NEXT contributor pieces coming out on the list.
We launched What’s NEXT last December 2021 as a collection of thought leadership by marketers in the region in order to better equip the marketing industry with future-proof strategies for 2022.
This month, three of our top stories are all marketing leaders who shared their insights on various domains in marketing such as conversions, social advertising, and the metaverse.
Meanwhile, in the part of Southeast Asia, a tech-forward coffee brand emerges as one of the top for launching its new in-app delivery service in Singapore.
Coming out on the list is Charlotte Ward’s insight for What’s NEXT, the director of Agnes media. In her piece, she talks about the various ways brands can have better conversions this 2022.
In an interview with MARKETECH APAC, Ward shared that the very first step in generating more conversions is analytics.
“The very first step which is extremely important is for the brand to review the analytics, and really understand their customer journey,” said Ward.
“What people are engaging with, what are they converting on, what pages are driving the greatest results on-site – really getting a full understanding of the first interaction through the last interaction, and identifying where [are] these drop-offs, or if something’s working really well, “ she further shared.
Ward said that the next important step is researching and identifying different elements you can test on-site. According to her, these could entail shortening a landing page, changing colours, and testing different ways of communicating their product solution.
What’s NEXT: Why brands must adopt a multi-platform strategy for social advertising
One of our top stories for the month is the What’s NEXT article of Stewart Hunter, director for customer success of Smartly.io for APAC, where he shared the number one strategy on social advertising today: a multi-platform strategy.
In an interview, we asked what he thinks are the various ways brands can communicate effectively today, and he shared, that as a status quo, there are many choices now since there are a lot of channels that consumers are going to today for their digital lives, “looking at their phones.”
“Brand should really follow their consumer, and also adopt a mindset of trying to communicate [with] their consumer in a different way, depending on where they are within their social media, social advertising daily journey,” shared Hunter.
He said that different platforms will require brands to communicate in a different way
“you have to be across platforms, you have to be multi-platform, and you have to think individually about how you’re delivering advertising, delivering effective content on those individual platforms,” said Hunter.
This April 6, Hunter will be one of the speakers in our upcoming webinar, ‘Social Advertising Trends in APAC 2022’. David Lim, HappyFresh’s VP of marketing, and Chan May Ling, KFC Malaysia’s CMO, will be joining the panel.
What’s NEXT: How businesses and brands can thrive in Metaverse
What’sNEXT contributors are on a roll in this month’s top stories. Coming out as our top 2 is the insight of Cheelip Ong, chief creative officer of Lion & Lion, who shared his top pieces of advice on how businesses and brands can jump into and eventually thrive in the metaverse.
In an interview with MARKETECH APAC, he explained further one of the insights he imparted in the piece which is urging brands to move from being corporation-first to community-first.
“Most brands and organizations are conglomerates, they have an official brand agenda and brand purpose to push. But for brands to actually navigate the space on the metaverse wisely, they got to understand that metaverse will be a result of communities coming together,” he said.
Ong further shared that people will gravitate towards their interest points and their passion points and as a result, people in the metaverse will be leading double or triple lives where who you are in reality may not be who you represent in the metaverse because we’re all gonna have our avatars.
“We need to allow brands to understand that you need to hand the power back to the community, to engage the community so that the community can serve your purpose and they can believe your brand purpose and believe your agenda,” said Ong.
Flash Coffee launches new in-app delivery service in SG
For our Top 1 story for the month, we have coffee chain Flash Coffee which partnered with pandago, foodpanda’s on-demand express delivery service, to launch a new in-app delivery service for its Singapore customers.
The brand, which describes itself as a tech-enabled coffee chain, shared how it leverages tech for both on the consumer front and on the back end.
In an interview with Sahil Arora, Flash Coffee’s managing director, he shared, “At the same time that we allow consumers to order coffee for pick-up in 10 minutes, that’s also [a] trickling and [rippling] effect into our back end operations. Our baristas have a little bit more time to prepare drinks when orders are coming in ahead of time.”
Arora said that as peakiness is one of businesses’ biggest challenges, data it receives from the pick-up functionality allows them to know when orders are coming in the most, and in turn, helps them to inform their strategies.
“The most important way that tech is enabling our operations is through the wealth of information that we’re collecting, that we’re able to use and analyse to make smarter business decisions. For customers ordering through our app, we can ask and answer questions like, what customers are ordering in different areas of Singapore, what times of day, [and] typically, what drinks they are ordering,” said Arora.
“Delivery has become a way of life, whether it’s food, groceries, [or] coffee; so I think to be a tech-forward chain, delivery had to be part of the proposition,” he adds.
Watch our exclusive interviews with the brands themselves on the latest episode of MARKETECH APAC Top Stories, now live on our YouTube channel.
Singapore – As part of Flash Coffee’s commitment to making its menu easily accessible to all, the Singapore-based coffee chain has partnered with pandago, foodpanda’s on-demand express delivery service, to launch a new in-app delivery through its official Flash Coffee app in Singapore.
The new in-app delivery on Flash Coffee app’s main page allows customers to have their orders delivered straight to their doorstep, which is an additional option to Pick-Up. This in-app delivery integration is enabled at 23 stores and counting across the country.
According to Flash Coffee, customers can now collect points on Flash Coffee’s loyalty programme for in-app delivery orders, which they can redeem for free or discounted products. These points will help in levelling up on membership tiers, which are connected to additional benefits like free products, limited edition merchandise, and invitations to exclusive events. In addition, the in-app delivery will be incorporated in the ‘Challenges’ feature in the near future, where fans will get additional rewards and points for completing fun, engaging tasks.
Sahil Arora, Flash Coffee’s managing director for Singapore, commented, “Powered by foodpanda’s pandago, we are one big step closer to making our specialty coffee as accessible as possible while catering to our customer’s ever-evolving lifestyle needs.”
Meanwhile, David Brunier, Flash Coffee’s CEO and founder, shared that launching this feature is a major strategic achievement for them as a fully tech-enabled company and paves the way for numerous customer experience improvements via technology in the future.
“Given the strong user adoption since our soft launch just a few weeks ago, we are excited to roll out the feature across the rest of our APAC markets shortly”, said Brunier.
Sukhdeep Singh, foodpanda’s director of strategic partnerships for Singapore, said, “With pandago, Flash Coffee can now tap on our reliable fleet of riders and advanced algorithm dispatching systems to satiate customers’ cravings for their favourite Flash Coffee drinks in the shortest time possible.”
Furthermore, Flash Coffee has also announced that customers can get complimentary in-app delivery on the Flash Coffee app with minimum orders of S$10 until 31 January 2022.
Singapore – Following the company’s funding in April this year, coffee chain Flash Coffee has officially extended its operations in South Korea and Japan, with branches opening up in each country’s capitals, Seoul and Tokyo.
The coffee chain launched with two outlets in Seoul, a two-storey flagship establishment at Sinsa, and a store in Yeoksam, both located in the heart of the bustling, upscale Gangnam district. In Tokyo, Flash Coffee unveiled a two-storey concept in the city’s iconic shopping destination within Omotesando.
David Brunier, CEO at Flash Coffee, said, “We are very excited to officially launch in both Seoul and Tokyo, and introduce our mission to provide high-quality coffee at affordable prices to these cities. These markets are known to embrace technology, and we hope to bring ease to the lives of consumers with our digital-first solutions, ultimately changing the face of coffee consumption across Asia for the better.”
The coffee chain will continue to grow its footprint across the seven markets it is currently in: Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan, with a goal of opening over 350 stores by early next year. The coffee chain has also set sights to enter three new countries next year; Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Un Koh, managing director for South Korea at Flash Coffee, said, “South Korea is filled with coffee enthusiasts and our coffee consumption rate ranks within the top 10 in the world. We are confident that our high-quality beverages crafted by award-winning baristas at Flash Coffee will appeal to South Korean coffee lovers. Our goal is to make our specialty coffee accessible to all, so for those who’ve not come across Flash Coffee yet, you will find us brewing very soon in a location near you. ”
Meanwhile, Shu Matsuo Post, managing director for Japan at Flash Coffee, commented, “Coffee culture has been prevalent in Japan for many years, and we’ve observed the rising preference for premium coffee locally. Specialty coffees tend to be expensive, but with Flash Coffee, consumers can now enjoy it at an affordable price point. We look forward to sharing our award-winning menu with customers in Japan, and hope they will enjoy our innovative creations.”
Singapore – Flash Coffee, a Singapore-based coffee chain backed by venture capital Rocket Internet, has secured US$15M in its recently concluded Series A funding to drive APAC expansion in 10 markets. The funding round was participated by venture capitals White Star Capital, DX Ventures, Global Founders Capital, and Conny & Co.
Flash Coffee which was launched in January 2020, aims to use the new funding to open three new outlets per week, an already ambitious pace that will be tripled to 10 store launches per week in order to open 300 additional stores across the region by end of this year.
The company is founded by CEO David Brunier and COO as well as CFO Sebastian Hannecker to make premium coffee accessible to Asia’s rising middle class. Through Brunier’s experience as foodpanda CMO and Hannecker’s Bain Consulting pedigree, Flash Coffee’s grab-and-go business model was created, allowing for significant cost savings to be passed on to customers.
“Strong investor support for our Series A round enables us to harness untapped potential in the region and replicate our success in seven new markets this year: Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam,” Brunier stated.
He added, “We will also build a regional headquarters in Singapore and expand our regional tech hub in Jakarta to 50 people to support our vision of fully leveraging technology to improve customer experience, proactively drive growth and significantly increase operational efficiency.”
In addition, the company aims to digitize today’s offline-dominated coffee industry with a newly launched consumer app that boasts a streamlined pick-up feature, sophisticated loyalty program, personalized promotions, and interactive challenges. Its dedicated barista app improves the operational efficiency of its stores and enables performance-based incentives for its baristas, ensuring an unparalleled customer experience.
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