SINGAPORE, 1 November 2022 – In a new partnership, Glife Technologies (“Glife”), a Singapore-headquartered digital business-to-business (B2B) food and agritech company, and Novitee, an omni-channel F&B food services technology platform for F&B merchants and suppliers, have announced the launch of KoomiMarket, a new digital marketplace to connect food suppliers and F&B businesses. The one-stop platform is aimed at uniting the food ecosystem by transforming how food businesses commercially connect and streamline the sale and procurement of goods to drive greater efficiency across the industry.
The B2B food supply chain has historically been highly fragmented with multiple inefficiencies in the process of matching demand and providing a streamlined ordering system for suppliers. Suppliers are very much dependent on the traditional paper-and-pen model when managing orders from buyers and F&B merchants are constantly in search of trustworthy suppliers to cater to their operational needs. KoomiMarket uplifts B2B Agrifood
players to easily connect on the platform, ensuring quality food suppliers and buyers are matched consistently.
Benjamin Yang, CEO of Novitee,
said “What sets KoomiMarket apart is that our marketplace is built with the supplier in mind. We marry our in-depth knowledge of F&B merchants with genuine feedback from our initial batch of suppliers to create a platform that addresses the unique needs of the food ecosystem. We believe that the marketplace will be of tremendous value to the stakeholders and pave the way for greater digitalisation of the industry within the region.”
When onboarded onto the platform, food suppliers can be discovered by quality food merchants and enjoy the convenience of being directly connected to them. Suppliers will also be able to personalise their preferred supplier configuration, such as delivery schedules and required Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) to increase operational efficiency. F&B restaurants will be connected to reliable sellers in the multi-vendor marketplace, leveraging
a one-stop destination for the procurement of ingredients and produce.
Upon a successful transaction between buyer and seller, the order can be easily tracked and traced on the KoomiMarket dashboard, informing buyers and sellers of the essential product and purchase information. This seamless connection between both stakeholders further strengthens food safety and traceability in the supply chain, providing merchants with end-to-end visibility on the origins of purchased ingredients.
In addition, KoomiMarket will be engineered through the use of Big Data and Machine Learning to allow restaurants to have access to dynamic pricing offered by food suppliers on the platform, leading to food innovation through cost productivity. Food suppliers would also be able to provide customised product offerings, by analysing purchasing decisions by F&B businesses.
Novitee, the company behind KoomiMarket, strives to empower F&B businesses through its full suite of end-to-end digital solutions. With the support of Glife’s supply chain expertise, the B2B digital marketplace will aggregate demand for food produce from restaurants and match it with its growing pool of suppliers. This gives restaurants better access to a variety of products at more favourable prices and advances the digitisation of the food
supply business as well.
Caleb Wu, Co-Founder and Deputy CEO of Glife Technologies,
said “Glife has been working closely with our stakeholders in the food supply chain to ensure that these digital initiatives solve the emerging needs of suppliers in the post-pandemic world. The food industry has seen a massive shift in the way consumers are purchasing and businesses need to pivot towards digital services. We recognise the potential of this industry and Glife hopes to provide solutions that enable a resilient and agile food value chain”
Glife aims to build trust and empathy between food suppliers and F&B outlets by sharing access to previously inaccessible insights and trends. Since its inception in 2018, Glife has connected 1,000 farmers and 2,500 F&B merchants across the region, creating transparency in the food value chain.
“This collaboration with Glife allows us to integrate purposeful platform features into the marketplace platform and digitally transform the checkout experience for wholesale food buyers and sellers. It is also a testament of the company’s constant innovation to advance the food ecosystem. The abolishment of the analog transaction processes is great start and there is potential to supplement the ecosystem with added services such as fintech
solutions and integration with Novitee’s suite of F&B solutions.” Added Yang.
Following the soft launch of the KoomiMarket earlier in October, KoomiMarket currently serves 70 food suppliers and 1,500 F&B establishments. Buyers can enjoy preferential pricing offered by suppliers during the trial period. The platform is expected to reach a milestone of $100 million GMV by the end of 2023.