In a completely stealth and surprising move, Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) has announced the launch of its new food delivery app, Robinhood.
You read that right. The bank is now diversified into a new, competitive sector of food delivery. The key strengths? No GP costs for restaurants, no application fee and the restaurant will get paid within the hour.
According to SCB’s CEO Arthid Nanthawithaya, the bank has seen firsthand the stunning economic impact that Covid-19 brought to Thailand, with smaller businesses hit and battered by the sudden pause of activity.
Something surged during the pandemic though; food delivery. Even now, as the country transitions into the new buzzword “new normal”, food delivery has never been more important (or crowded).
The “Robinhood” platform was developed in just 3 months, and is proof of SCB’s drive to create digital transformation within its organization, something competitor K Bank has been leading.
Why is this important?
By not putting any extra charge or commission on the restaurants, it will probably save them some money. It’s a well known fact that restaurants and delivery services have a bit of a love-hate relationship; a delivery platform like LINEMAN or Grab would typically take a hefty fee out of a restaurant’s profits, which ultimately hurts them in the process.
Paying a fee to a delivery platform remains one of the biggest pain points for restaurant owners.
SCB will be working with messenger platform Skootar as its delivery partner. This is interesting since SCB invested in Go-Jek’s Thai arm, GET, which actually has a food delivery platform.
It’s hard to gauge the success of food delivery apps, especially in a hyper competitive, ultra crowded landscape in Bangkok. However, it may just be a data play for SCB. Restaurant owners that sign up will most likely get some benefits, like lending or insurance.
Robinhood will operate under SCB’s new unit, “Purple Ventures” which directly comes under its digital arm, 10X. The app is slated for launch in July.
