Meet the man building a ‘Shopify for restaurants’ in Southeast Asia

Oddle co-founder – Jonathan Lim.

Jonathan Lim, who owns Singapore’s grill and salad eatery The Lawn, got the idea for his startup when he couldn’t find a user-friendly way to manage his orders and track what customers enjoyed eating.

Within a year, he’d turned it into a reality, launching Oddle in 2014. It’s basically Shopify for restaurants – an online ordering platform that restauranteurs like him can make use of. It’s now running in Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Hong Kong.

Jonathan’s affinity with the food industry started in his university days when he created a food delivery service for his fellow students.

Where there is Foodpanda or their competitors, there will be a need for Oddle.

Oddle charges restaurant owners a subscription fee. It allows them to manage and grow their delivery and takeaway orders through their own online channel.

The system gives restauranteurs the option of organizing their own deliveries rather than relying on startups like Foodpanda, Zomato, and Deliveroo.

“Where there is Foodpanda or their competitors, there will be a need for Oddle,” Jonathan tells Tech in Asia. “I reckon the restaurant owners will realize by now that if they only rely on Foodpanda as their online channel, they will be paying a large chunk of revenue to them.”

Get the full lowdown on #tiablr2016 here.

A startup in India called RestoLabs provides a similar service for restaurants, helping them avoid sharing commissions with the likes of Foodpanda.

Fast forward to today, Oddle’s order management system is being used by over 1,300 restaurants, with sales offices in Malaysia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.

According to Oddle, since its launch, the startup has transacted over US$10 million worth of meal orders.

The startup has raised US$750,000 from investors such as East Ventures, Quest Venture Capital, Holly Tan, and Gwendolyn Regina Tan. The latter is a Tech in Asia stakeholder, who participated in Oddle’s seed round.

Meet Oddle’s co-founder Jonathan Lim at Tech in Asia Bangalore 2016 on July 6-7.