SINGAPORE : A food subscription start-up from the United States offering S$1 hawker fare and restaurant meals from S$6.99 is hoping to shake up Singapore’s crowded food-on-demand market.
Unlike the likes of Deliveroo, FoodPanda, Fastbee or Plum, the new player MealPal, which started its service on Monday (July 16), does not deliver. And instead of unlimited choice, its 250 participating food and beverage outlets — such as The Soup Spoon, Teppei Syokudo, Grain and Tuk Tuk Cha — offer only one dish daily.
For S$95.88, subscribers can get 12 lunch meals at restaurants, which must be redeemed within 30 consecutive days. For S$2 more, they get two additional hawker meals.
Dinner plans cost S$89.90 for 10 restaurant meals and S$127.35 for 15 restaurant meals. This works out to between S$6.99 and S$8.99 for a restaurant meal, which MealPal says is 40 per cent cheaper than dining-in.
The service is currently available only at four business hubs across Singapore — Buona Vista, the Central Business District (CBD), Novena and Orchard — and only on weekdays, excluding public holidays.
Similar to other food-on-demand start-ups like Fastbee and Plum, MealPal customers must order their meals hours in advance through the app or website. After redeeming all the meals in the plan, or at the end of the 30-day cycle, users will be automatically charged for the next round, with the option to pause between cycles.
Singapore is the 17th market the two-year-old start-up is entering into. Having raised US$35 million (S$47.81 million) from venture capital firms such as Menlo Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and Comcast Ventures, MealPal is looking to expand its reach into Asia, beyond its existing presence in the US, Australia and the United Kingdom.
In Singapore, its general manager of international markets Paul Clifford said there are plans to add more dining partners, as well as to expand into other business areas such as Jurong East and Changi Business Park.
