The expansion to Thailand followed a US$2.6 million pre-Series A funding round dahmakan raised in January

The dahmakan mobile app

Malaysian full-stack food delivery startup dahmakan today announced that it has acquired its Thai counterpart Polpa for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition is part of a regional expansion plan that the company has mentioned in their US$2.6 million pre-Series A funding round announcement.

Polpa was founded in 2014 by Dr. Julian Timings (a Cambridge PhD graduate with past experience working on Formula 1 autonomous vehicles) and Prongfa Uennatornaranggoon (former regional manager from UK’s leading restaurant franchise Carluccio’s).

Like dahmakan, in addition to doing the delivery, the startup prepares and cooks its own meal instead of partnering with restaurants or caterers.

It claimed to have been profitable since inception and has been integrated to dahmakan since March 1.

In an email to e27, dahmakan Co-Founder and COO Jessica Li explained that Polpa will continue to operate under its original name as it has built a strong brand recognition and loyal customer base in Thailand.

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“We will be rolling out our operational processes and technology stack in the coming weeks which includes the prediction tool, machine learning routing algorithm, website and mobile apps,” she said.

Following the acquisition, Dr. Timings will join the executive team as the General Manager of Thailand while Uennatornaranggoon will join as the Head of Food Product.

“We believe that Thailand will be the fastest growing market and expect that we will grow revenue five times in our first year of operations,” Li added.

Besides Thailand, dahmakan has also mentioned plans to enter the Indonesian market in Q1 2018.

In a press statement, Co-Founder and CEO Jonathan Weins stated his belief that there is potential for similar acquisitions in the near future regionally.

“So far, these type of roll-ups have been executed by food delivery marketplaces like Just Eat and Delivery Hero. We see great value in partnering with existing market leaders who can leverage off our operational expertise and technology to grow the market together,” he said.

Founded in 2015 by ex-Rocket Internet executives Li, Weins, and Christian Edelmann, last year the startup made history as the first Malaysian startup to take part in the Y Combinator incubator programme in Silicon Valley.

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Image Credit: dahmakan

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