UENA Indonesia gets funding boost

UENA, an online F&B startup based in Indonesia, has raised an undisclosed seed funding round led by East Ventures, with strong participation from IDN Media and several angel investors. UENA was founded by Alvin Arief, co-founder (pictured right) and CEO and Roy Yohanes (pictured left), co-founder and chief operating officer, who are F&B entrepreneurs with more than 10 years of experience.

UENA is a one-stop F&B shop for the Indonesian mass-market. It consolidates the everyday menus in one place and delivers the food online. It aims to redefine daily food, currently in analogue form with street-side vendors, into quality food using quality ingredients, proper storage and equipment, and hygienic crew grooming. The company receives orders directly and processes themselves end-to-end including delivery, where each kitchen only covers a hyperlocal area to optimise delivery cost and delivery time.

With the funding, it aims to continue the expansion in Jakarta to reach many more customers and serve their daily food necessities. It will also continue to develop and utilise technology to serve the customers, such as mobile apps and cooking robotics. About 25% of the funding will also be used for marketing, mostly to introduce its solutions to the general market.  While the brand doesn’t currently have a dedicated marketing person, Yohanes currently handles much of the marketing activity.The brand’s marketing activity is mainly divided into two activities - branding and direct. Branding is aimed for awareness and direct is aimed for trial.

“We are very grateful to have the investors’ conviction and support for our mission. We see the problem in Indonesia, where daily food is the largest segment but most underserved, with more than 98% of players are independent / Mom&Pop. This causes customer pain related to high fragmentation, especially in quality, reliability, and price. We believe UENA serves as the solution for the Indonesian mass-market daily food needs,” said Arief.

“Online food delivery has become the highest adoption of any digital product in Indonesia with 71% of penetration rate and still growing fast. We believe we are at the tipping point with many exciting opportunities ahead,” Yohanes added.

“We see big potentials in F&B landscape in Indonesia with more than US$ 90 billion market size. Compared to other SEA countries, Indonesian F&B is still in its infancy stage. Ariefand Yohanes have proven their execution in the industry, and we are so excited to welcome UENA to the East Ventures family,” Melisa Irene, partner at East Ventures said.

Related Articles:
Grab Indonesia names comms lead for food, mart and fintech
Burger King Indonesia opens doors to other food brands this Ramadan