FunNow, the Taiwan-based app that lets users book on-demand activities in five Asian countries, is expanding its reach in Southeast Asia through a merger with restaurant booking app Eatigo. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but FunNow CEO TK Chen says it is the largest post-COVID O2O M&A deal in Southeast Asia.
As part of the deal, Eatigo is now a major shareholder of FunNow Group. Eatigo CEO Michael Cluzel will join FunNow’s board, while Chen will remain president and CEO of the group.
Founded in 2015, FunNow has 2.5 million users and uses a dynamic pricing strategy that allows companies on the platform to choose to offer different prices to customers based on supply and demand. Since launching in Taiwan, FunNow has expanded to Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand. It has grown through a series of acquisitions, including Malaysian restaurant booking platform and SaaS provider TABLEAPP and Taiwanese family activities booking platform Niceday. Since its inception, FunNow has raised $22.5 million from investors including the corporate ventures of PChome, KKday and Wistron.
![The founders of FunNow and Eatigo](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/AllFounders.jpg?w=680)
The founders of FunNow and Eatigo
Founded in Bangkok in 2013, Eatigo uses yield management techniques to help 4,000 restaurants book customers during off-peak hours with discounts of up to 50%. It operates in Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines and has a user base of five million. Investors include TripAdvisor.
Chen tells TechCrunch that the two companies decided to merge because together they can achieve greater economic scale while keeping their operating costs low. “F&B is a pretty important lifestyle sector and FunNow is a multi-category lifestyle platform,” says Chen. “We want to focus and dedicate more resources to F&B as it is the largest lifestyle category.”
Chen adds that the merger will double FunNow’s revenue. The FunNow and Eatigo apps will continue to operate separately, while the two companies’ businesses will be combined.