8/1/2018 – Dah Makan, a Malaysian food delivery startup has closed US$2.6 million pre-Series A follow-on funding from renowned startup accelerator Y Combinator (YC).
Other investors including Texas Atlantic Capital, Swiss family office Atami Capital, and former founder of PE Fund APAX Partners also joined YC in leading the new round, along with participation from existing investors.
Dah Makan is the first Malaysian startup to enter the YC program and it will use the pre-series A fund towards developing technology and exploring opportunities to expand its business in Southeast Asia.
Based in Kuala Lumpur, Dah Makan which means have you eaten in Malay， distinguishes itself from rivals Foodpanda, UberEats, and Deliveroo by delivering meals that are prepared in-house instead of picking up from restaurants and stalls.
Unlike early food services like Rocket Intenet’s FoodPanda which connects customers to restaurants, Dah Makan is a new generation of full stack service in Asia, managing all operations from cooking to dispatches in-house.
It also uses an AI-driven routing technology to batch deliveries for lunch and dinner in the scheduled time selected by the customers.
The latest fund comes at a time that Dah Makan starts exploring the potential business expansion in Southeast Asia with more focus on Indonesia and Thailand.
In 2017, Dah Makan closed US$1.3 million seed round and went on to be part of YC’s 2017 summer programme.
Dah Makan COO Jessica Li commented on the deal, “Make something people want, meaning you should also be customer-focussed first in everything that you’re doing.”
“Grow, but do it responsibly,” Li added. “Growth should always be the key metric in any startup but do it in a way that is sustainable and aligned with long-term vision.”
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