FoodTech

Through this strategic partnership, Alipay will provide Chope with its mini program Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and know-how, while Chope becomes Alipay's platform partner with the capability to integrate a variety of mini programs quickly and flexibly.

The Taiwan food delivery market, which is a top market for international food delivery players foodpanda and Uber Eats, is expected to generate $1 billion annually and already does close to 600,000 orders per day.

With the F&B industry amidst one of its most revolutionary periods of all time, we are likely to see increased interest in cloud kitchen models. This space offers the potential of better unit economics, improved profitability, and faster scalability that could result in a more secure and sustainable business for all.

The company is currently planning its pilot-scale production and is working on plans to commercialize HEGG by the first half of 2022.

The development also came after local media highlighted last month that some restaurants has urged customers to bypass food delivery platforms and order food directly from their outlets instead of delivery services which take a big cut.

The funding round came as Malaysia is in a so-called "full lockdown" with traveling restrictions to contain the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Restaurants and eateries are allowed to operate but no dine-ins are allowed and they are required to follow standard operating procedures set by the government.

Besides increasing the company’s manpower, the new funding will be used to bring Kamereo to Hanoi next year, to build a new warehouse management system, among others.

Besides Taiwan, 3 SQUARE is looking to expand into Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, The Philippines and Japan.

Good Protein Fund I aims to invest in startups that are focused on alternative protein solutions to build a sustainable food ecosystem.