Robinhood, the Thai on-demand service application, has set an ambitious target to become a regional platform in the near future.
The goal is part of the company's five-year business plan spanning 2022-26, aiming to generate income this year or next, then raising funds around 2025-26.
REGIONAL PLATFORM
Robinhood aims to become a regional platform by offering shares to international and regional investors via the funding mobilisation process, managing director Srihanath Lamsam said in an exclusive interview with the Bangkok Post.
The company does not have a plan to list on either a local or regional bourse. It will consider listing after the funding mobilisation process, he said.
Robinhood was developed by an SCB X subsidiary, Purple Ventures Co. SCB X is the parent of Siam Commercial Bank.
Robinhood celebrated its two-year anniversary on Oct 26 and offers several services on its digital platform. The company started with a food delivery service in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
BORN FROM PAIN
Mr Srihanath said Robinhood was created to make it easier for consumers to buy food during the government's lockdown measures to contain the coronavirus.
Robinhood aims to help small restaurants that were battered by the lockdown measures earn income. Based on that objective, Robinhood has declined to charge a gross profit (GP) fee since it was established.
GP is a commission fee applied to food vendors or hotels by online platforms.
Amid tough competition in the food delivery market, Robinhood has received positive feedback from all parties, comprising delivery drivers, restaurants, merchants and buyers, he said.
Robinhood expanded to offer a hotel booking service, again with no GP charge. The service is meant to help small hotels that were hobbled by the pandemic.
"Given our objective of helping small merchants, business owners, restaurants and hotels to survive during the Covid crisis, Robinhood has not charged GP fees for food delivery and hotel booking services," said Mr Srihanath.
SHOPPING SERVICE
New services on the platform should pave the way for monetisation and raising fresh funds under the company's five-year business plan, he said.
The platform initiated a shopping service a few months ago, where Robinhood buys products for users at grocery stores and other shops.
Robinhood joined hands with many business partners in several categories of goods, covering grocery stores such as Tops as well as retailer HomePro and beauty and makeup shop Eve and Boy.
The service charges a GP fee of up to 15% to business partners, compared with a maximum rate of 25% on other platforms.
Mr Srihanath said there is higher demand for some items than was anticipated, such as equipment for emergency events and tools to fix broken water pipes.
The shopping service generates roughly 2,000 orders per day and is expected to increase to 10,000 orders in 2023.
NEW EXPANSION
Robinhood plans to launch two new services later this year: express delivery and ride-hailing.
The company obtained a ride-hailing licence from the Department of Land Transport, covering both private and public vehicles. Around 5,000 drivers have applied to join Robinhood's ride-hailing service.
Robinhood had a soft launch for the express delivery service on a consumer-to-consumer (C2C) basis, which generates positive income. The company plans to expand to business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer services in December, he said.
After implementing C2C express delivery service, the company found higher demand in the B2B area and sees greater business opportunities in that sphere, Mr Srihanath said.
Delivery service via the B2B format will help companies improve efficiency and cut operational costs, he said.
A lot of companies, including subsidiaries under SCB X group, still utilise a traditional workflow. Robinhood sees this as an opportunity to offer express item delivery service to the group's subsidiaries, corporate customers and the supply chain of SCB X's clients, Mr Srihanath said.
In addition, Robinhood plans to introduce an electric vehicle (EV) rental service in 2023 after a soft launch late last year, with rental rates starting at 120 baht per day.
The initial phase of the service focuses on allowing customers to rent EVs to do extra jobs to earn more income. Some office workers will use this service to complete extra jobs on the weekend, he said.
In the next phase, it will focus on offering the service to people who want to rent EVs for any purpose, said Mr Srihanath.
The company collaborated with partners in EV-related businesses to prepare for a smooth expansion over the long term, he said.
Robinhood has around 500 electric cars and motorcycles and wants to increase that figure to 2,000.
In 3-4 years, the company expects to have around 3,000 electric motorcycles and 70,000-10,000 EVs, Mr Srihanath said.
FINANCIAL FOCUS
In addition, Robinhood is preparing to apply for nano-finance and insurance brokerage licences from the relevant regulatory bodies. The company expects to start operation of these services in 2023, he said.
Robinhood has been recommending financial products of other SCB X subsidiaries and digital banking platforms to its customers. These include SCB Easy digital banking platform, SCB Abacus Co Ltd and Monix Co Ltd.
As a result, the company sees greater opportunities in these nano-finance and insurance brokerage businesses, said Mr Srihanath.
Another planned expansion is in capital market services, aiming for synergy with Innovest X Co Ltd, another SCB X subsidiary, he said.
Financial services will eventually generate the largest portion of the firm's total income over the long term, said Mr Srihanath. These services are expected to account for more than 50% of the company's total revenue.
According to the five-year business plan, Robinhood expects to generate income starting this year. For the initial stage of 2022-23, the income is expected to stem from the shopping service, express delivery service, ride-hailing and EV rental.
"We target the Robinhood platform generating net profit starting in 2025 or 2026, then we'll have the potential to raise new funds by ourselves," he said.
The company currently receives funding from SCB X.
There have been 3.2 million downloads of the Robinhood app, with 270,000 participating merchants and 32,000 delivery drivers. Food orders via the platform tally around 100,000 per day.
