Thai Express founder sold his company for $80m. He now sells soup.

Ivan Lee, the Singaporean founder of Thai restaurant chain Thai Express, sold 70 percent of the business for a tidy US$80 million in 2008. Since then, he’s been investing in other startups, including Grain and Vanitee. Recently though, he’s back as an entrepreneur.

Besides starting a mobile games studio, he also founded a pre-packed soup subscription service called HotSoupDiet. Yes, soup. According to Vulcan Post:

 This eight month old startup which Ivan co-founded with fellow entrepreneur Dean Chan, wants to change the way you eat by making their meals highly accessible, yet healthy.

Designed to be a meal replacement for heavy consumptions of unhealthy food, the soups serve to complement your weight-loss regiment.

Getting in on this soupy goodness isn’t difficult either. Anyone who’s interested can simply sign up to their subscription-based service, after which, you can plan out your meals by choosing from the different flavours available on their website.

Online food delivery is an incredibly crowded space though. He’ll be fighting against UberEats, Foodpanda, Deliveroo, and many others. With plenty of food options within walking distances of offices and apartments, the sustainability of online food delivery services is unproven.

Pricing is another problem. HotSoupDiet does offer something unique enough to capture a niche crowd. But at over US$7.40 for a serving of soup, the niche could remain tiny.