Woei Siang Lim was part way through his Bachelor of Commerce degree at Victoria when he founded Food Ninja in 2013. He and fellow alumnus Vincent Wong then took the already-established business to the University’s Entrepreneur Bootcamp in 2015, with a view to learning how to run it in a smarter way.
Since then, they have continued to grow the online food ordering and delivering company in Wellington.
The young entrepreneurs have also been looking for ways to upscale their operations and expand into other regions and countries, as several competitors emerge.
Last week Food Ninja signed an investment deal with Global Line Network (GLN), a digital platform provider for fleet management and distribution in Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines.
“Technology plays a big part in the food delivery business,” says Siang, “so that’s where we saw our opportunity.”
GLN’s depth of experience with software development will give Food Ninja operational efficiencies which can be scaled up as the business grows, says Siang.
“Without giving too much away, a new customer app will automate much of the ordering process, making it easier and faster to order, while a supporting back-end app will increase the speed and efficiency of delivery to improve the overall customer experience.”
Sebastian Tan, GLN’s chief executive officer, says it’s a win-win partnership.
“We’ve wanted to break into the Oceania market for some time now—particularly New Zealand, as we see vast potential for the adoption of new apps here over the next five to 10 years. Any profits we make from the Food Ninja partnership will be reinvested into New Zealand as we seek to grow our other operations here.”
Introduced through a mutual friend, Sebastian and the Food Ninja team are excited about working together. “Siang and Vincent are smart, committed businessmen,” says Sebastian. “They know what they want, and then they go out and get it. I’m really looking forward to working with such strong, entrepreneurial attitudes.”
Siang is equally complimentary. “This is a fantastic opportunity for us, and not just on a tech level, because Sebastian is a really successful businessman. We are going to learn so much from him about growing our business into new areas.”
The Food Ninja founders studied at Victoria Business School—Siang graduated in 2014 with majors in Economics and Management, and Vincent in 2012 with majors in e-Commerce and Management.
Siang admits that Food Ninja’s entrepreneurial journey has not been an easy one. “We needed all the support we could get, so having our early investors and Viclink (Victoria’s commercialisation office) stand beside us while we worked to establish our market in the beginning has been invaluable. And now we’re ready to take it to the next level with the support of GLN.”