December 22, 2024

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Line Man, a delivery app operated by Line in Thailand, announced July 30 that it has landed an investment of $110 million from venture capital firm BRV Capital Management, marking the first time that any entity in the Line Group has secured a financial investment of this size for one of its overseas signature services.

On the same day, the delivery app operator also said it is merging with Wongnai Media Co., Thailand’s leading restaurant review platform, founded in 2010, in an effort to cement Line Man’s position as the Southeast Asian country’s leading on-demand app.

Wongnai and Line Man have been partners since 2016. With more than 10 million active users each month and 400,000 restaurants, Wongnai has the largest restaurant database in Thailand.

The capital investment secured from BRV will be used to strengthen the newly merged entity and expand its development as it continues to grow in the Thai market.

Line Man had over 3 million users in Thailand as of January 2020 and offers six services: food delivery, groceries, convenience store items, parcels, a messenger service and a taxi-hailing service. Partnering with more than 100,000 restaurants, Line Man currently operates in Bangkok and other locations such as Nonthaburi, Samutprakran, Nakornprathom, Samutsakorn, Ayuthaya, Chonburi-Pattaya City and Chiang Mai, with plans to expand to cover 15 regions in Thailand this year.

“We’re excited to be working with BRV Capital Management, a growth capital firm that has repeatedly shown it knows how to find and develop winners,” said Lee Eun-jung, head of global business for Southeast Asia at Line Plus Corp., Line’s global business arm, based in South Korea. “Since its launch four years ago, Line Man has grown into the most popular delivery application for the Thai people -- and now, this investment by BRV Capital Management will help take Line Man to the next level.”

BRV is a growth capital firm that led early rounds in PayPal and Waze, and operates local offices in Korea, Japan, and China. Based on the firm’s experiences investing in companies in Silicon Valley and around the world, BRV said it had decided to invest in Line Man because of the company’s ongoing success at delivering innovative services for the Thai market.

By Park Ga-young (gypark@heraldcorp.com)