Ex-Groupon execs want you to outsource tasks to new concierge service

What’s the next startup boom area? There’s no one easy answer to that, but it seems that mobile-based concierge services are a likely candidate to be “the next big thing” – if they can fulfill their promise of saving you time at a reasonable price.

Ever since Magic launched in the US and grabbed headlines, startups around the world have been evolving and adapting the idea of a butler service that you communicate with via SMS. In China, startups are doing it with WeChat, because SMS is so last century. Across parts of Asia, young teams are building on top of other messaging apps like WhatsApp.

In Malaysia, one such on-demand concierge service, Helpr today revealed that it has secured seed funding from US-based venture capital firm 500 Startups. It only launched two months ago. It piggy-backs on either SMS, WhatsApp, or Facebook Messenger, allowing users to send in queries (like asking for restaurant recommendations) or request a particular thing (such as food delivery or booking a travel itinerary).

“It’s free to chat with us, and we don’t charge customers for queries like recommendations, restaurant reservations, taxi bookings, or a quick search on business info like operating hours or contact details,” explains Helpr co-founder Eujean Lee. That makes sense, since a lot of that stuff can be done with AI-powered assistants like Siri, Cortana, or Google Now.

“We often purchase food for customers from hawker stalls which do not usually have online delivery options,” says Eujean, giving an example of a paid service it offers. “For example, a popular request is for nasi lemak from Village Park at Damansara Uptown. Our base rate starts from RM 15 [US$3.50] and charges increase based on time taken, distance travelled, and complexity. For example, delivery of food for four persons within a 10 to 15 kilometer distance would cost about RM 20 to 25 [US$4.80 to $5.90].” That’s not including your tasty nasi lemak, of course.

The startup says it now has thousands of users and is growing fast. 76 percent of customers are willing to pay for the service to fulfill their requests.

Wheeling and dealing

Helpr’s three co-founders are all former Groupon executives in the Asia-Pacific division. Alongside Eujean is Ang Kok Seong and Wafiq Rodzuan (pictured right to left, below).

Helper’s trio of co-founders are all former Groupon APAC execs.

“At Groupon, we learned a lot about what it takes to run not just an ecommerce company but also a customer-centric company. We started off selling daily deals but eventually focused a lot on services, products, and technology that would enhance the overall customer experience,” Eujean tels Tech in Asia. “With Helpr, we saw an opportunity to create a service that has the potential to help improve people’s productivity by taking certain tasks away from them and outsourcing them to us as and when they arise.”

The trio acknowledges this will be a crowded niche as more startups pile in – but that was also the case in daily deals, with thousands of startups sprouting up with local discounts after seeing the early success of Groupon in 2007 and 2008.

“This is a business model with a very low barrier to entry, but if there’s anything that we have learned from our experience with Groupon is that the customer should always be our number one priority,” adds Eujean.

Khailee Ng, partner at 500 Startups, is on the same page. “Launching an on-demand concierge is easy. But scaling one is not. Helpr’s founders dealt with some of the most complex product, logistics, and customer support scaling throughout APAC and their experience is an unfair advantage here. I’m betting on them getting this right, and creating a vital service for Southeast Asia’s growing middle income [consumers],” he said in a statement.