Meta Invests In Singaporean Startup, Take App, A Platform That Helps Merchants Sell Through WhatsApp

Meta Inc owned Messaging app, WhatsApp is arguably one of the most popular chat apps in the world, with the platform becoming the world’s most popular messaging application by 2015, and by February 2020 was able to boast of over 2 billion users globally.

The platform had since then evolved from being just a messaging app to becoming a core communication tool for businesses seeking a direct channel to their customers’ pockets and this is evident in the use of the platform by countless companies to build the foundation of their businesses.

It is on the aegis of this that Meta Inc., the parent platform for Facebook, Instagram, Messenger has taken this notch higher by investing in Take App, a startup started by Youmin Kim, a former engineering manager in Facebook. Youmin had left Facebook to focus of his tech dream, prominent among them to bridge the digital gap for small-business owners in Southeast Asia.

It was in the process of doing this that he founded Take App. He had initially created Take App as a non-profit venture that will help small restaurants in his native Singapore accept online orders at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic but later latched on the big opportunity to transform it into a commercial venture. The success of the startup according to the company, has about 1,000 businesses using Take App across 35 different markets, with the vast majority based in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

The Take App platform was curated in such a way as to allow those with little or inadequate technical know-how to set up a simple website to facilitate online orders, replete with a shopping cart, payments, and a direct connection to WhatsApp for managing and tracking the final order.

With the Take App service having its central focus on restaurants, the startup also works with bakeries, grocery businesses, beauty salons, among others.

Youmin Kim in an interview with TechCrunch had explained the purpose of the service when he posited:

“Our unique selling point is that we let merchants keep direct WhatsApp conversations with customers. Merchants love the idea that they receive notifications and order details directly in WhatsApp — no other app or login is required.”

In addition to that, the Singaporean startup also has the mandate to assist businesses drive repeat custom through maintaining a database, with support for creating and sending newsletters (like a “Mailchimp for WhatsApp”) that include special offers or relevant company updates.

The basic and core Take App service is free but it also has a litany of premium features that included things like advanced analytics, unlimited image uploads, and custom domain names.