A wholly Thai-owned food delivery app, Robinhood was developed to help the “little people” thrive and its managing director, Srihanath Lamsam, stands right behind the success of the company.
The platform, developed by Purple Ventures Co Ltd, has been instrumental in keeping afloat eateries and riders driven to their lowest ebb during the toughest days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company charges no GP (commission fees normally levied on food vendors by delivery platforms) for food deliveries to spur sales of eateries and food shops that cannot afford to take their business online due to high expenses.
Robinhood introduced a cashless payment method that reduces the risk of virus transmission while enabling eateries and food shops to receive money within an hour of a sale.
With that, money gets quickly put back in circulation for the businesses to expand their trade. At the same time, riders no longer need to advance payments for food orders for customers. It’s all about helping the struggling “little people” to survive the hardship and stay resilient through the crisis, the firm says.
The result? The public is turning its attention to the often-overlooked issue surrounding GP in food delivery platforms.
This is one reason Robinhood is among the most-talked-about food delivery platforms over the past year.
At the height of the lockdown in July, Robinhood offered free delivery for 15 days starting on July 11 before extending the offer for another eight days to help ease the burden on customers.
Small food shops also saw sales going up. As businesses were able to sustain their operations, more riders were recruited.
The campaign was responsible for a surge in food orders for some 67,000 eateries and food shops. More than 20,000 shops picked up their first food orders during the campaign. Robinhood is proud to have created jobs for 26,000 riders and generated 800 million baht for the economy.
In less than a year since its inception, Robinhood, the only Thai-owned food delivery platform, has grown in leaps and bounds.
Today, the app has clocked up 2 million registered customers with more than 130,000 eateries and food shops available on the platform.
The company stays true to its main goal of aiding small businesses which form the mainstay of the country’s economic engine.
It is also setting in motion a plan to expand its platform into tourism, which will be a key sector driving the country into post-Covid-19 recovery.
In the pipeline is the launch of the business model called “Zero GP OTA” to revitalise the hotel sector early next year as part of pushing Robinhood to be a truly super Thai app.