HappyFresh to bring one-hour grocery delivery service to Manila

Filipinos endure the worst traffic on earth every day. That’s not an exaggeration – Waze says so. What’s supposed to be a short commute to or from work can take an hour, sometimes two. If you’re working an 8-5 job and don’t have a house help, how do you find time for errands like a trip to the supermarket?

HappyFresh – which hails from Indonesia – has come to provide some relief by taking its one-hour grocery delivery service to Manila, the capital of the Philippines.

The startup announced today that it opened an office in the Philippines – its fifth in Southeast Asia – which will be fully operational by the second quarter. The delivery service isn’t available yet but will be soon.

“We will be able to solve a real problem for our customers. Metro Manila, which we will serve first, has an expected growth in the number of new cars of 500,000 annually. That can make every trip to a supermarket a half-day journey,” says Isabel “Pao” Barrientos, the newly appointed managing director for the Philippines.

Isabel, who was previously with Ensogo and Lazada, expects working moms to be the company’s main customers. “HappyFresh will allow them to make a smart choice [of] having us [do] their grocery shopping, allowing them to spend their spare free time with their family instead of [being] in a supermarket.”

HappyFresh’s arrival in Manila comes as no surprise because it’s been targeting the whole of Southeast Asia, one of the world’s largest ecommerce markets but also one which suffers from a woefully inefficient logistics network.

HappyFresh CEO and co-founder Markus Bihler says the company feels excited about the Philippines, with its population of 96 million (about 100 million based on other estimates). “The population’s wealth is expanding and consumer spending growth will accelerate through to 2030,” he says.

Following the expansion, the company is now present in five markets alongside Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Taiwan.

The startup is one of the most heavily backed logistics companies in Southeast Asia, raking in US$12 million in total disclosed funding to date.