By Professor Dr Hafezali bin Iqbal Hussain, Head of Research, Taylor’s Business School

Fuel subsidies have become the talk of the nation in recent weeks since Tengku Zafrul announced that it would cost more than RM 28 billion to government coffers for the year of 2022 alone if the price of crude oil remains above $100. In providing the breakdowns, the finance minister further elaborated that for every RM 1 spent on subsidies, 52 cents went to the T20 whilst only 15 cents benefitted the B40. 

The fintech industry is experiencing a rapid growth period, thanks to the contactless culture accelerated by the pandemic. An encouraging figure from CB Insights reported that, as of Q3 2021, the fintech market garnered a record USD91.5 billion in global funding – that’s almost twice the total funding in 2020. With that being said, the future of fintech is bright. 

We’ve seen the rise of more disruptive technologies across the fintech spectrum, from contactless payment to Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) and NFT. With all that afoot, what can the highly anticipated fintech space expect in the coming year?

By Hanim Zulaikha Zulkifli

Eatcosys runs platforms like FoodAdvisor, MyCookingStory, FeedMyGuest, and VMO. They provide retail and fintech solutions to help businesses transform and re-invent their business models.

Tham Lih Chung is currently wearing many hats in EATCOSYS as the Chairman, Group Co-Chief Executive Officer, and the Executive Director. Tham’s experience includes finance, banking, and accounting, and he is also one of the advisory board members for some technology start-ups in Malaysia.

Tham sits down with Malaysian Business, where he shares the core values of EATCOSYS and how they are actively grooming the next generation of entrepreneurs.

MB: What is EATCOSYS all about?

T: In a nutshell, Eatcosys focuses on helping the local retail, food, and beverage (F&B) businesses grow to become regional players. Despite dealing with COVID-19 challenges two years ago, Eatcosys rose above and managed to help homegrown entrepreneurs and businesses thrive by providing retail technology solutions focused on sustaining long-term prospects.

Transforming Business

T: I spent a significant portion of my career in corporate finance and investment banking, working closely with big corporations to ensure their business profitability before venturing into the hospitality industry as an entrepreneur. My personal experience of the challenges retailers face, coupled with my expertise in managing and transforming businesses across different sectors, has led me to found Eatcosys with a mission to help smaller businesses thrive and grow even in a saturated market such as the F&B sector.

My goal is to establish an integrated F&B platform affording businesses the capacity to implement internal control and provide a clear roadmap for clients to assist them in scaling their business.

Platform and trading division

T: While many of us aspire to open our own café or restaurant one day, most of us have little or no idea what it takes to start a business and end up working with various platforms, consultants, designers, contractors, e-commerce suppliers, utensil suppliers and even Point of Sale system (POS). Can you imagine how many stakeholders or parties you need to deal with in order for the business to start and potentially succeed? That is where Eatcosys comes into the picture. We provide a one-stop solution for entrepreneurs.

Digitalisation

T: From a tech platform, Eatcosys expanded to F&B discovery, including catering, eCommerce, and, eventually, food delivery services. We can cater to big events of minimum of 500 pax, inclusive of services like F&B providers, as we match clients with the right caterers based on their needs and goals. Food catering and event space bind together perfectly, and that is how we design and form the foundation of our F&B service pack.

We also provide POS and customer relationships management (CRM) systems to address specific pain points pertaining to sales, customer acquisition and retention. Our software and solutions are either developed in-house or through strategic partnerships with homegrown companies, handpicked and evaluated by our group of experts.

Partnership solutions

T: I believe in uplifting and enriching our stakeholders and the communities we serve. In that respect, we often tap into our existing network of investors, business partners and clientele to provide bespoke solutions and redemption programmes to large enterprises, including grocery stores. Eatcosys’ retail marketing arm recently worked with supermarket chain AEON and a licensed kitchen products brand to design, manage and run their collection and redemption campaign. AEON saw increased sales transactions during the campaign period and improved customer engagement as shoppers actively participated in the campaign.

Our all-around solutions and services range from supplies sourcing and procurement, data analytics, supply chain financing, pricing and marketing. It is critical for us to generate revenue and profitable proof for clients and build trust with all our stakeholders.

Fintech

T: We are expanding our fintech division as now We have a money lending license which allows us to offer micro-financing services to SMEs lacking access to conventional banking and related services because they are small, less diversified and likely to have weaker financial structures compared to big and established companies. Eatcosys uses alternative data to generate pertinent information and perform the appropriate due diligence prior to financing the SMEs. We aim to help these SMEs get funding with competitive interest rates, ease their application process and offer flexibility in repayment options.

We also have a venture capital arm registered with the Securities Commission of Malaysia to invest in promising SMEs and start-up businesses. That said, we provide more than just funds. SMEs and start-up businesses can leverage our collective knowledge, skills, experience, and a network of more than 20,000 merchants to build a sustainable and profitable business model, strengthen their brands, penetrate new markets, and gain customer prospects effectively.  With an integrated platform providing end-to-end solutions, entrepreneurs can focus on developing and enhancing their goods and services instead of spending extra hours or unnecessary funds to address fundamental challenges to the survival and success of any business.

That is how we choose to operate at Eatcosys. We are in the midst of expanding our fintech division – we acquired a stake in Fundnel Malaysia, a market operator registered with the Securities Commission of Malaysia, in January this year to provide businesses with equity crowdfunding (ECF) services and access to alternative funding solutions.

Equity Crowdfunding

T: Last year, we raised RM 10mil through an equity crowdfunding campaign with Fundnel Malaysia. This year, however, we will focus on institutional funds and securing strategic investors with a larger capacity to fulfil larger organisations' special demands and needs.

MB: What advancements or developments have Eatcosys undertaken since the recent fundraising activity in October?

T: We completed a few acquisitions, including Fundnel Malaysia and, recently, Claritas Consulting (Asia) Sdn. Bhd. to provide customised Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Integrated Commerce Solutions (CCS) and Analytics Solutions (ECS) to our clients. Claritas Consulting (Asia) currently serves clients in the F&B, retail, telecommunications, and financial sectors such as Singtel, SingPost and Singapore Press Holdings (SPH). The acquisition enables us to venture into a new market, in line with our regional expansion plans.

Aside from commercial activities, I am particularly proud that we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with HELP University in December last year to incorporate real-world experience in their course syllabus and jointly develop programmes for training, research and development in robotics, automation, and e-commerce platforms and services that further complement the F&B industry. This aligns with Eatcosys’ aspiration to foster entrepreneurship among tertiary students and youths.

In the same month, we also rolled out the Malaysians Eat Out (MEO) campaign in conjunction with the launch of the FoodAdvisor mobile app, which was initially available only on the website. FoodAdvisor is widely known in Malaysia for its online food listing and discovery platform. Under this campaign, FoodAdvisor mobile app offers exciting vouchers with up to 40% discounts to incentivise Malaysians to dine in the participating eateries. Simultaneously, SMEs will benefit from this campaign to increase their respective brand’s awareness and online presence. The MEO campaign is one of our many initiatives planned to reignite the local F&B industry, spur growth and generate additional revenue for the operators.

MB: How is Eatcosys different from its competitors?

T: At Eatcosys, our goal is to build a network that empowers enterprises and start-ups to grow, thrive and sustain long-term prospects.

Beyond a retail technology solutions provider, I envision Eatcosys acting as an ecosystem that provides all the essential components required by SMEs and start-up businesses to thrive in the new economy, and especially post-pandemic. Our end-to-end solutions enable us to support SMEs by reducing costs and time spent dealing with multiple vendors, allowing them to concentrate on their core business.

MB: Could you please elaborate on Eatcosys’s core values?

T: The company and all staff are guided by V.I.T.A.L., which stands for Value, Innovation, Trust, Agile and Learn. It will be difficult to achieve our objectives if our employees and to a certain extent, clients do not share our core values.

Value: Pursue growth opportunities for our internal and external stakeholders regularly. Career advancement is crucial as that will lead to a better customer experience.

Innovation: Create and pioneer new and dynamic ideas to enhance Eatcosys merchants’ value proposition and strengthen our ecosystem.

Trust: Develop open and honest connections with our stakeholders.

Agile: Market changes must be embraced and promptly addressed. We can navigate uncertain circumstances because of the trust we develop with one another.

Learn: Continuous learning culture who is willing to learn and unlearn under certain circumstances.

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Founded in 2020, Eatcosys provides retail and digital solutions for F&B players. It is fronted by a group of steadfast commitment: support the underserved and unserved businesses with a broad suite of retail and digital services. Its all-round solutions include cloud-based POS systems, CRM software, loyalty management, transit advertising platform, e-commerce platforms, data insights, and financial services to address the business hurdles for MSMEs and SMEs.

For more information, visit, www.eatcosys.com.