In at the moment’s fast-paced world, customers count on pace, comfort, and effectivity of their day-to-day actions. Ordering meals on-line isn’t any exception.

Nonetheless, not all companies can afford to put money into costly e-commerce platforms or have the technical experience to arrange an internet ordering system. That’s the place Take App is available in.

It was based in 2020 by Kim Youmin, who studied pc engineering in South Korea.

His first job was as a software program engineer at LG Electronics and he later moved to Singapore to work as an engineer at Fb (now Meta). He left the corporate in 2021, however throughout his time there, his group launched a number of commerce merchandise in Southeast Asia, together with Market and Instagram Buying.

An thought born throughout the COVID pandemic

Take App is an internet ordering platform that helps small companies streamline their ordering course of by way of WhatsApp.

The thought first got here to Youmin when he was ordering meals from neighbouring eating places and Fb teams utilizing WhatsApp throughout the COVID-19 lockdown. The ordering course of was inefficient, and the homeowners needed to manually reply to and observe many WhatsApp conversations.

As such, Take App was born out of the necessity to make the method extra environment friendly, and Youmin got down to create an internet order kind that focuses on WhatsApp ordering.

I used to be impressed by Chinese language dim sum eating places that ask prospects to fill in an merchandise amount kind and later affirm orders. With our order kind, prospects can select what they need with out having to ask the homeowners questions.

The proprietor receives the order particulars by way of WhatsApp and settles funds and supply by way of WhatsApp conversations. This makes the ordering course of considerably environment friendly and helps small companies with a digital hole.

– Kim Youmin, founding father of Take App

To cater to enterprise homeowners who is probably not well-versed in expertise, Youmin developed Take App with a user-friendly interface. The platform leverages using on-line menu web sites and WhatsApp, eliminating the necessity for any app installations or sophisticated settings.

In June 2022, the startup closed a seed funding spherical that was led by Y Combinator’s Winter 22 batch. Y Combinator, Meta, and an undisclosed record of angels invested US$1 million within the firm.

It began out as a non-profit enterprise

Initially beginning as a nonprofit to help small eating places in Singapore in accepting on-line orders, Kim found a big alternative to show Take App right into a industrial enterprise.

Within the early days of Take App, Youmin manually created order kinds for a number of restaurant homeowners who persistently uploaded their meals choices to Fb teams. He shared the order kind hyperlinks of their Fb group posts as feedback and inspired prospects to make use of them to save lots of time for the homeowners.

The response was optimistic, and many individuals began utilizing the order kinds by way of word-of-mouth locally. In simply three months, Take App reached 200,000 web site guests monthly.

Nonetheless, one of many key challenges Take App confronted is serving prospects who usually are not tech-savvy and fewer dedicated to the platform.

We overcome this problem by doubling down on WhatsApp ordering, which is free, versatile, quick, and economically environment friendly. Our prospects can chat immediately with their finish prospects on WhatsApp with out a intermediary, which saves cash as there is no such thing as a fee concerned.

Though we could lose some retailers who want commonplace e-commerce providers, we deal with constructing international merchandise for WhatsApp ordering as an alternative.

– Kim Youmin, founding father of Take App

Final 12 months, Take App additionally helps companies in retaining prospects by preserving a database and offering help in creating and sending newsletters, just like a “Mailchimp for WhatsApp.” These newsletters could comprise unique affords or related updates in regards to the firm to entice prospects to return.

Since its launch, TakeApp has seen constant progress. When restrictions have been lifted in 2021, web site visitors dropped by 30 per cent, however the core retailers didn’t expertise main churn as many shoppers nonetheless desire utilizing WhatsApp ordering.

At this time, Take App has over 20,000 retailers and paid prospects from greater than 30 international locations and is an official WhatsApp Enterprise Answer supplier. Aside from eating places, Take App additionally caters to different companies akin to bakeries, grocery shops, and wonder salons.

The rise of WhatsApp bots

The corporate’s focus is on end-to-end automation of WhatsApp buyer assist. It is a main ache level for the service provider neighborhood attributable to excessive labour prices.

Take App plans to broaden its product line to incorporate normal buyer assist akin to Q&A and desk reservation, permitting retailers to cut back labour prices by utilizing WhatsApp bots.

We already use a WhatsApp bot in our buyer assist, and folks often don’t even realise it’s a bot. We consider that hiring a WhatsApp bot for buyer assist will turn out to be as commonplace as hiring a human buyer assist employees member.

– Kim Youmin, founding father of Take App

Take App’s synthetic intelligence (AI) expertise generates pure conversations, enabling retailers to adapt their tone and information in conversations.

For instance, the bot can ask a service provider, “A bunch of 4 individuals needs to walk-in in 5 minutes. Ought to we settle for the reserving?” Upon receiving a “Sure” response, the bot confirms the reserving and guides the purchasers, in the end saving precious time in comparison with handbook conversations.

The product is at the moment in closed beta with greater than 10 retailers, and Take App plans to launch it publicly later this 12 months.

Featured Picture Credit score: Take App