Sunway Group’s innovation arm, Sunway Innovation Labs (Sunway iLabs), has announced the top five startups from its one-month pre-accelerator phase of the 2021 Sunway iLabs Super Accelerator programme.
The accelerator programme, kicked off together with Pan-Asian venture capital firm Gobi Partners last month and was completed with 23 startups in a pitch competition to a panel of judges.
The top five selected startups are Loop Foods, Rent Guard, Singular, Trabble and Wise Crafters.
In the next three months of the Super Accelerator programme, Sunway iLabs will help the selected top five startup founders connect with Sunway’s global network of partners, industry experts, mentors and investors.
Head’s Up will be interviewing all five chosen startups each week to discuss further on where they are, their challenges, and how they are creating, how their participation in Sunway iLabs will impact their journey moving forward.
This week, we bring you our interview with Wise Crafters founders, Genie Hor and Samantha Ng who shares their dedication to provide a healthier offering to Malaysians and why they are focusing on customisable plans.
What are the areas as a startup are you looking to improve with the help of the partners, Sunway iLabs and Gobi Partners?
As for now, Wise Crafters have already kickstarted our first pilot project with Sunway Future X and it was a very successful awareness campaign. In just three weeks, we managed to collect orders and raise funds to donate almost 600 sets of #SayangMalaysia Care Packs to the needy in conjunction with Malaysia Day celebration.
We foresee there are many opportunities and synergies that Wise Crafters can work together with Sunway Group, especially on health, wellness and retail.
Wise Crafters also plays a role in terms of providing solutions for a more holistic living as we come equipped with comprehensive solutions for busy Malaysian citizens.
For example, when a person suffering from chronic irritable bowel syndrome pays a visit to a doctor, instead of walking out with just medications, the doctor will likely take a look at all the potential factors that may be causing the IBS, including other health problems such as diet, nutrition, sleep habits, stress and personal problems. This is where Wise Crafters can take part to offer our service and healthy meals to fulfil individual needs, in terms of body and soul.
With the support of Sunway iLabs, Gobi partners, as well as this Super Accelerator Program, we are now armed with more business knowledge and network to accelerate this healthy F&B business at a faster growth rate. And we also have a strong believe that this Super Accelerator Program will also help us fine tune our direction and attract the right partners or investors in our upcoming fund raising journey.
What has the reception been like for Wise Crafters and what are some of the F&B areas are you looking to expand in time?
Wise Crafters was created to help more individuals to eat healthy, and reduce the risk of getting non-communicable diseases.
We have received good responds and feedbacks from our customers and the repurchasing rate is currently at a positive 45 percent. We have also obtained 4.8 Stars review on Google and 5 Stars on Facebook.
We are now focusing on customisable personal meal plans and 7-fit meals bundle. We created the personal meal plans to help people achieve their health goals via natural healthy meals that focuses on weight loss, detox and a healthy reset.
On the meals bundle plan, we wanted to encourage everyone to eat at least one fit meal per day. These two offerings will definitely become our main focus in the coming 18 months. We want to expand our market segment to not only within the Klang Valley but also other states, and Singapore.
Do you intend to set up a brick and mortar restaurant/cafe in the future?
YES!
We used to have a kiosk in Damansara Uptown and we set up many pop-up stores in the malls too. During the Pandemic, Wise Crafters successfully pivoted and changed our business model to adapt to the new demand.
We now have a full unit physical shop in Bandar Sunway. Our initial idea was to convert this outlet as our experience store, in which customers can taste our food and make online purchases in near future.
As for the coming future, we are looking to set up more cafés in different areas. We also want to enhance the dine-in experience and work on an acquisition channel for our meal plan delivery business.
There has been a steady rise of healthier food offering services in KL, how will yours compete and stay different compared to the others?
We would like to see Wise Crafters as part of Malaysia’s healthy food ecosystem. We are committed to supporting each other to encourage more Malaysians to eat healthy and stay healthy. Each of us might be offering different values to different market segments.
As for Wise Crafters, we are currently focusing on customising wholesome vegetarian meal plans for women. As per our observations, different individuals have different health and diet preferences, for example weight management, detox, vegan, dairy free, gluten free and many more.
One size does not fit all as we believe everyone is unique in their own way. This is where Wise Crafters is different among the rest, as we focus on serving the right values to our community.
Has the pandemic in any way worked to your advantage as the awareness on healthy eating may have influenced customer behaviours?
Covid-19 has gotten more people to focus on their personal health. People have come to understand the importance of a healthy diet instead of relying on medication and processed supplements.
Our monthly revenue has increased by 160 percent in the last year and we believe that the rise in health awareness is the main reason behind it.
Additionally, the plant-based F&B segment has grown stronger within the last two years. There are so many mock meat available in the market now and even global big brands like McDonald and Burger King have also kickstarted their own vegan product line.
All of these are unavoidable market trends and it creates so much more potential for Wise Crafters to scale up in the near future.
In terms of funding, how could potential funding improve your services and in which areas?
We are offering customisable meal plans, which means we need technology to help us manage customer data as well as automate the whole delivery process. This will help us scale the business in a more systematic way. Technology will also allow us to perform consistently in a more time and cost-saving way.
Since early this year, we were given opportunity by Alliance Bank to deliver gift sets nationwide. And it was a success!
We are now working hard on R&D, and soon we will be setting up two more delivery hubs in Penang and Johor Bahru. The funds we received will be allocated to fasten this process and hopefully more states in Malaysia able to enjoy our healthy meals soon.
