Honestbee Hong Kong, the local arm of Singapore’s fast-growing, on-demand grocery concierge and delivery service, has gone live.
The Hong Kong expansion coincides with the successful first round fund raising of US$15 million from a group of seriously experienced eCommerce and online business experts, including:

• Pejman Mar Ventures, early investors in Dropbox, Lending Club and DoorDash.
• Gideon Yu, former CFO of Facebook and YouTube; co-owner of the San Francisco 49ers.
• Owen T Van Natta, founding team of Amazon search company A9.com and former COO of Facebook.
• Steve Chen, Google Ventures advisor, as well as co-founder and former CTO of YouTube.

Honestbee Hong Kong launched quietly last week, offering a one-stop shop for a range of products to meet the needs of busy consumers.
In just eight months, Honestbee has expanded its team to almost 100 people and continues to scout for more staff as it gears up to expand across Asia. The company plans to be in at least six other Tier 1 cities by June 2016, with taipei believed to be the next priority.
In Hong Kong it has partnered with four retailers for its launch: Anything But Salads, Gateway Supermarket, Great Food Hall and Liquor & Liqueur.
The company says its business model allows traditional grocery companies and specialty retailers to significantly increase their revenue through Honestbee’s on-demand eCommerce platform where they fulfil customers’ orders in as little time as within the next hour.
Explains Honestbee co-founder, Isaac Tay: “We started with a mission to create a highly elastic and trained workforce that would bring invaluable convenience to our customers through our concierge and delivery services. Most people in Asia are time-starved due to the demands of their job and a large proportion of the population do not possess their own vehicles.
“With our on-demand delivery service, time-crunched customers can enjoy the widest choices from their favourite stores, even at the last minute, when they shop through Honestbee.”
According to a Goldman Sachs report, the online grocery shopping market in Asia is currently estimated at US$18 billion with online carts typically being 1.8 times larger than store-based retail at checkout.
The willingness to use digital retailing options in the future is highest in the developing markets, with Asia Pacific at 60 per cent in a recent Nielsen report, signaling the great potential for growth in online grocery delivery services in the region.
“In light of the potential, however, this space is under-penetrated, with intended providers facing challengers in both services and delivery,” said Tay.
Honestbee’s solution to these challenges – a model that has proven successful in this sharing economy – is to use someone else’s spare time to shop and deliver groceries, thus freeing up customers to spend their time doing more of what they enjoy.
“With a crowdsourced workforce, orders are fulfilled by concierge shoppers who shop at top supermarkets and boutiques stores, and a delivery team which brings the orders to customers’ homes, all within-the-next-hour golden time slots of choice. This eliminates the cost of infrastructure building, such as the need for warehousing, additional manpower and equipment. In return, honestbee brings increased efficiency and convenience to customers, as well as improved margins for partners.”