Singapore’s Honestbee to launch food delivery. It’ll get lots of competition

An Honestbee shopper in action.

Honestbee, a Singapore-based startup which started out as a grocery delivery service, now wants to send you lunch too. This move comes just a few months after it launched an on-demand laundry service.

Announced via Facebook, the upcoming launch of meal deliveries, a feature which is currently being tested, puts Honestbee in a hyper-competitive space in Singapore filled with established players like UberEats, Deliveroo, and Foodpanda, as well as fledgling startups like Grain and DishDash.

But that’s just the start, an Honestbee spokesperson tells Tech in Asia. Its grand plan: to build a delivery network which enables freelance riders to fulfill an assortment of services. On the iOS app, users can now get health as well as home and auto products delivered to their doorsteps. These additional product categories are still undergoing early trials.

Because it serves as a layer between services and consumers, it’ll need to build up a huge volume of deliveries to make up for its thin margins. To that end, it has expanded its grocery service to eight countries in just 1.5 years.

It’s a trajectory the company has been on since “day one,” adds the spokesperson.

Honestbee declined to reveal exact numbers about its performance, but says it has full-time 300 staff and “12,500 registered delivery drivers and shoppers partners.”

Food deliveries could pair well with groceries, because in Singapore restaurants are often located near supermarkets in the same shopping malls. This move could increase the efficiency of its delivery network.

Honestbee says that its food delivery service is “not much different” from competitors, but aims to stand out by offering consumers a wide range of conveniences beyond cooked food.

Redmart, which got acquired by Lazada, is Honestbee’s chief competitor in online groceries.

Update on Feb 7, 5.30pm SGT: Added Honestbee’s response.