The super-app dream is getting a refresh

Super apps had their moment in the sun.

But years later, after a crypto rush – and now that AI mania is taking hold – these “everything apps” haven’t quite taken shape outside of China where they originated. Of course a few leaders in Southeast Asia, like Gojek and Grab, are an exception.

Still, to keep users engaged, many firms continue to embed services outside of their core offerings. Instead of building features in-house, though, they tap “super-app enablers” that are making it easier and faster to add on these various services.

Indonesia-based Dana, for instance, started as an e-wallet that offered payments and money transfer services in 2018. In 2020, it introduced a gold investing feature and now also offers insurance, credit, and other services.

Dana may not consider itself a super app (it prefers to call itself an open “platform”), but like many digital wallet players, it has found itself needing to add adjacent services on top of its core payment offerings to retain users.

Many other e-wallets – along with ecommerce platforms and even crypto exchanges – are doing the same, and that’s good business for these super-app enablers.

One such firm is Singapore-based Boxo, which helps platforms add on other services in the form of mini apps.

Launched in 2019, with US$8 million raised from the likes of Antler, Google’s Gradient Ventures, 500 Global, and RTP Global, the firm was born out of its founders’ own frustration with building a travel super app from scratch.

Doing so was technical and required a “mini-app platform” that would enable plug-ins of various services, but “we couldn’t build a lot of these integrations [ourselves],” Boxo CEO and founder, Kaniyet Rayev, tells Tech in Asia.

According to Rayev, Boxo’s revenue between January to October has grown “five to six times” year on year.

Super apps losing their shine?

By one count, super apps attracted close to US$17 billion between 2015 and 2022.

They also attracted the lion’s share of tech funding in Southeast Asia between 2018 and 2020. This drew many firms to go the super-app route.

But in 2021, financial services firms took over that crown.

Building mini apps at speed and at scale

Hope for super-app hopefuls