Jonathan Lim has always been an entrepreneur and has a keen interest in the F&B industry. Lim was famously known as the “zhi char uncle” during his university days.
Singaporeans may associate this term with the middle-aged man wearing spotty white t-shirts at coffeeshop stalls hacking furiously at woks to whip up staples such as fried hor fun or sweet and sour pork. Lim’s nickname was due to his side-hustle he started back in school to help deliver food to students on campus.
Lim studied engineering then; he admits that he was merely following what his elder siblings did. After a heartfelt chat with his father about his future, he realised that the world is his oyster. Lim completed his engineering degree, but he believed he was meant for much more.
He signed up for the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC). As part of an overseas exposure at Stanford University, he was in a class taught by Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn. The experience blew his mind. “I realised that I could start to dream bigger,” says Lim in an interview with The Edge Singapore.
Today, Lim is the founder and the head honcho at The Oddle Co, an omnichannel platform that empowers restaurants to take charge of their future by connecting them with their customers. Just before Lim started Oddle, he was running his restaurant — The Lawn Café — which he still owns today. One of the pain-points as a restaurant owner was receiving delivery orders from several channels. Lim wanted to manage this system properly and consolidate them.
However, his efforts to engage a tech development company would have resulted in about $300,000 to build this tool. So, with the experience he gained from NOC and sheer will and determination, Lim built his own tech tool. “Creating Oddle was like scratching my itch (as a restaurant owner). I thought that if I could build something for myself and later share that solution with fellow restaurant owners, that would be a good thing,” he says.
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It was a good thing that Lim eventually did. When the pandemic-related lockdowns happened, Oddle was quickly one of the heroes of the F&B industry. During those dark months, restaurants, while able to remain open, were not allowed to offer dining-in, and only takeaways were possible. Restaurants all across Singapore struggled to stem their bleeding as people stayed home.
Restaurant’s saviour
The pandemic was a wake-up to restaurants in Singapore, forcing them to digitalise to reach out to customers stuck at home. Many restaurants turned to food delivery platforms to grow their online presence, but they ended up suffering from the high fees charged by these platforms, which increased further during the pandemic.
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This is where Oddle came to the rescue. While delivery platforms were charging inflated commission fees as high as 30% per order, Oddle instead charged a flat fee of 10% on online sales while keeping set-up fees free for merchants, meaning no upfront fees. “Our success is anchored around the restaurant’s success,” says Lim, elaborating that Oddle’s fee recognition depends a lot on how the restaurant performs.
Restaurant owners could also manage their logistics, allowing them to manage their costs further. But of course, Oddle did provide delivery services to the restaurant merchants at a competitive rate.
Apart from the lower fees charged, Oddle could reach islandwide, compared to the delivery platforms that only reached out to those within a specific kilometre radius.
Lim recalls an example of a restaurant within the CBD racking in six-figure monthly sales. “During the pandemic, they struggled even to reach $100 a day. It was tough for the restaurant to reach the residential areas on these delivery marketplaces,” he says.
The restaurant reached out to Oddle for a lifeline, and within 24 hours, its Oddle page was up and running. That month alone, $200,000 in sales were made via Oddle, and this restaurant survived the pandemic. In contrast, many CBD restaurants have closed.
“We are here to serve the restaurants. We will always be ‘restaurant first’. We want to empower restaurants to control their own business,” says Lim, who has been named EY Entrepreneur of the Year for Food and Beverage Solutions.
Lim admits that Oddle has not won many accolades, but awards and recognition are not what Oddle is chasing. He is happy to stay behind the scenes, helping the restaurants. “We don’t need the Oscars. We are focused on our box office sales,” he says.
Hungry for more
Oddle was incorporated in 2014 but only really took off during the pandemic. Oddle was only a platform for consumers to place takeaway and delivery orders.
Lim explains: “Now that things are opening up, dine-out (including deliveries) is only about 15% of a restaurant’s business, while dine-in is a good 85% of a restaurant’s business.”
Lim admits that with most restaurant businesses being from physical walk-ins, it is easy for restaurant owners to not think about digitalising and instead focus only on the brickand-mortar space. “In restaurant management 101, we learn that location is everything. That is why restaurants are willing to pay a premium for rent on spaces that can grab consumers’ attention,” he says.
And now, with the worst of the pandemic over, consumers are out and about, and restaurants are lively once again. This does not mean restaurants should halt their digitalisation plans or put them aside. Consumers are now more comfortable and reliant on technology. It is more important than ever for restaurants to continue their digitalisation efforts and connect with their customers where it matters — on the internet.
Hence, Oddle is branching across the value chain to “democratise” the F&B digital scene. Apart from its takeaway and delivery ordering platform, Oddle also provides restaurant reservation and payment offerings. Lim explains that its reservation platform is free for restaurants to use. This helps them bring in the sales needed for them to survive in this competitive landscape.
Rather than charging restaurants to get on the reservation platform, Oddle charges restaurants for so-called “engagement service” after customers make their reservation, such as SMS reminder, says Lim. Oddle also provides ordering via QR codes, as well as payment and customer relationship management.
Apart from expanding its offerings to restaurants, Oddle has been expanding its presence within Asia. It has already signed up 1,500 restaurants in Singapore and another 3,500 across Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Oddle is currently looking at countries such as Australia and the Philippines for its next leg of expansion. Historically, Oddle works better in countries with higher GDP. Other factors Lim considers in his expansion bid include the total transactions within a country (for example, how much people eat out), the dollar value and the engagement level of the market.
Responsible growth
Lim is glad that Oddle has helped to rejuvenate the F&B scene. But he is also conscious of the company’s growth and wants to ensure the business’s longevity.
Oddle is seeing strong revenue growth, with 2020 recording revenues of $2.7 million, and 2021 seeing a significant jump to $18 million. The growth continues to 2022, which posted a revenue of $24.5 million.
However, ebitda is currently negative, as the group is reinvesting its profits for its expansion — 2022 recorded a loss before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation of $1.8 million. “We have to strike a good balance between growth and profitability. We cannot just be taking profits if the company isn’t growing. Hence, we are now investing in growth with profitability at the top of our minds. We are working to match our ambition with our execution,” says Lim.
Lim notes that as Oddle expands — be it in the form of new offerings or new geographical locations — profitability is vital. It may not be immediate, as there will be costs to bear for research and development and investing in the business, but there should be a plan for longevity and profitability.
Lim advises other aspiring entrepreneurs: “Look at the tech industry, for example. Several companies were reckless with their growth, which did not do them good. In business, we need to focus on both growth and profit. You have to find a balance and be in control in growing your business.”
Meanwhile, Lim is thankful for the support that it has gotten from Oddle’s investors, such as venture capital firm Altara Ventures which is chaired by Koh Boon Hwee, who will also be chairman of the Singapore Exchange S68 group from Jan 1, 2023, onwards. Oddle’s latest pre-Series B bridge round raised some US$5 million ($6.9 million), with Altara leading the round. These funds will be used for product development and market expansion in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
When asked if a public listing is in the works for the company, Lim says: “We won’t say no to money, but our ultimate goal is to stay true to our mission, which is to help grow the industry.”
Lim expects the next 24 months to be challenging for the F&B industry, with a possible recession looming. “We will always stand with the restaurants,” he says. “We want to ensure that we can help our restaurants grow their sales. And we believe digitalisation is the best way to achieve that.”
