Dear all reader, investor and trader alike.
Today I want to introduce you a very high potential stock that is dealing with today technology, and also a part of the making of a super apps for human everyday life.
Last time got competition between Grab and Uber, now only left with Grab in the SouthEast Asia region. Grab is nonetheless known to all from young and old, and became a household name in a very short while in fact.
Grab started out in Malaysia, but got it's major funding in Singapore, and now is dubbed as the Unicorn start up in South East Asia that had a closed end market capitalization of USD 10 billion after their last successful fund raising from Softbank which includes investor such as Toyota, Hyundai, Yamaha, Microsoft, Bookings Holdings Oppenheimer fund and Ping An Capital.
Singapore’s Grab Get New Funding From Softbank $1.46B
https://theinsiderstories.com/singapores-grab-get-new-funding-from-softbank-1-46b/
Grab is now aggressively developing, upgrading and expanding it's services in South East Asian region. The ride sharing platform is now not only only ride sharing, but also e-Wallet and Food Delivery now.
With such great expansion with big capital pouring in to development the new eco-system of the future, this small little company in dealing in software development in Malaysia might be the closest proxy you can get your hands along now towards the growing development of Grab, and this company is Cuscapi.
Why is it Cuscapi ?
You might be wondering why it is a company such as Cuscapi can be linked with a rising Unicorn like Grab Holdings.
Summarizing it, Cuscapi had more than 40 years of experiences in F&B Point of Sales (POS) system. If you had ordered food before at KFC, Pizza Hut or Texas Chicken, that is the store front system that capture your order, send your order to the kitchen, do cash registering process and also put a queue number. Of course the system is also capable of a lot of others thing like inventory management which is not visible to customer.
Cuscapi had been expanding their footprint at South East Asia region, namely Malaysia, Phillipines, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand as well as China.
http://www.cuscapi.com/clients/
So how is Cuscapi linked to Grab Food at this South East Asia region?
The battle of Go-Jek vs Grab
Here is what we can know about Go-Jek vs Grab from Jakarta Post
Full article https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/03/07/food-versus-fintech-go-jek-grab-in-race-to-be-super-app.html
Go-Jek and Grab started their businesses by offering ride-hailing services in their respective home countries, taking different steps to attract consumers. Later, they expanded their services and became a duopoly in Southeast Asia.
In their race against each other to become the first "super app" in Indonesia, Go-Jek and Grab are increasingly similar in terms of their features but still noticeably different in their approach to the super-app status.
Go-Jek focuses on pushing financial technology (fintech) with its Go-Pay e-wallet, while Grab concentrates on its GrabFood delivery service.
Go-Jek’s emphasis on fintech first became apparent when founder Nadiem Makarim confirmed in late 2017 that Go-Pay would become a spin-off the following year.“The plan is very clear. Go-Pay has an e-money license [from Bank Indonesia]. So our plan is to bring Go-Pay outside of the Go-Jek app,” he said.
On Summary - Go Jek focus on Go-Pay,
Grab will focus on GrabFood delivery service.
In order for Grab to become the super-app that focuses on Food delivery services, it is undeniable that Grab will need to pour in more development fund into developing a app that encompassed the whole eco-system of F&B into the system. This is where Cuscapi can come into picture to help GrabFood to achieve this milestone.
What has the latest fund raised had to do with Cuscapi?
According to an exclusive interview with GrabFood regional head - Tomaso Rodriguez, the bulk of the fund raise in the in the latest series will be channel to GrabFood for expansion, and to make it GrabFood a super app
https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/03/10/executive-column-grabfood-to-go-full-steam-ahead-armed-with-kitchens-funds.html
In order to become a super app, the app will be more insightful and can provide best selling product, pricing strategy and promotion. It will be integrated into the Grabfood app in the future. Since Grabfood do not have vast experience in the F&B eco system and POS system, it can leverage best with Cuscapi expertise in this area
The Cuscapi C360 Engage is a complete eco-system for the F&B business of the future
It is a comprehensive system that can link inventory, waiter app, back end, diner app, e-menu and kiosk, POS system, number queue, boss app as well as DELIVERY.
I believe this is what GrabFood is looking for in order to integrate into GrabFood app to become a super-app, the complete eco-system for the F&B business of the future, everything in an app.
Is there any potential evidence of testing?
Currently, the F&B business in Malaysia that is using C360 Engage system which also in GrabFood are as follow
And Singapore as follow
As you can see until now, there are a lot of solid link between the success of Grabfood to be linked with Cuscapi C360 Engage that is developed by the software team.
Will it come a day that Cuscapi system will be bought over by Grab Holdings from their huge chunk of USD 1.5 billion fund raise (equivalent to RM 6 billion) ? Give a 10% will be RM 600 million that can readily lift Cuscapi to 60 cents.
Or will Cuscapi form a strategic JV with Grabfood, and all participating F&B outlet in South East Asia will require to use this system? Do remember, Grab is focusing in South East Asia, and Cuscapi footprint is also South East Asia, meaning both are having the same growth path.
In the next few post, I want to share you why I feel Cuscapi is again heavily linked to the growth of Grab.
I have to tell you that I am invested in Cuscapi, at the current price, there is nothing much to lose as the new shareholder had pumped in more than RM 50 million in order to bring the company to life. However, this is not an article for you to do your buy,sell decision. Please consult your own professional adviser.
