Line’s delivery app in Thailand banks $110m, merges with local food app

Thailand’s Line Man, the on-demand assistant platform of messaging app Line, said it has reached an agreement to receive US$110 million in investment from growth capital firm BRV Capital Management.

According to Line, this is the first time one of its entities overseas has secured an investment of this size.

Photo credit: Line Man

The deal comes as Line Man inked a merger with Wongnai Media, a restaurant review and discovery platform in Thailand. According to a statement from Line, the capital investment aims to strengthen the newly merged entity and expand its development in the country.

Since being founded in 2010, Wongnai currently has more than 10 million monthly users, carrying the largest restaurant database in Thailand with over 400,000 establishments in its network. Line said the merger would help it strengthen its position as the country’s leading daily assistant app.

Line Man was launched in 2016 as Line forayed into local, on-demand services for the first time. Since then, it has added over 100,000 restaurants to its platform.

The app offers deliveries for food, groceries, convenience store items, and parcels, along with messenger and taxi-hailing services. It currently operates in Bangkok and several other provinces such as Nonthaburi, Samutprakran, and Nakornprathom.

Jayden Kang, former chief strategy officer at Line Thailand, said in an interview with Korea Times last year that the company aims to extend its reach into 17 more regions in the country in the coming years, adding that Line Man would continue to focus on the local market rather than expanding overseas.

BRV is a regional growth capital firm that led early rounds in PayPal and Waze. According to the statement, the company decided to invest in Line Man because of the app’s success in becoming a “daily assistant” to local users.