Meet our Portfolio: MyBrand
Indonesia F&B eCommerce platform MyBrand received investment from our early stage VC fund and were part of Accelerating Asia Cohort 3. Here we talked to Founder Louise Lautan about her experience with the 100-day flagship accelerator program, what’s next for MyBrand and her Founder story.
Applications to join our flagship program where startups receive up to S$200k in investment from our early stage VC fund and a dedicated program are now open. Find out more
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
My background is in the F&B business, I have created and scaled F&B business most of my life. Before My Brand, I created 6 food brands and managed over 80 restaurant outlets in Indonesia via franchising model. Prior to this, I graduated from the National University of Singapore and worked in Procter & Gamble Singapore for 5 years. Across the years, I have learnt that we can become more profitable if we can make others profitable. We can become more successful if we can make others successful too. That’s one of the reasons why I chose to do franchising originally.
So, what is My Brand?
MyBrand is a food social commerce that provides the opportunity to online food businesses to scale through the reseller ecosystem. We seek to encourage these sellers to build the next generation of food empires out of their humble homes, just like how Airbnb turned homes into hotels.
How does MyBrand’s platform work?
MyBrand aggregates all online food businesses who are mostly using social media and messaging apps as their main selling tool. As a platform, we help them in resolving various manual works such as the ordering system, delivery coordination, payments as well as automating the reseller feature
What’s the MyBrand origin story?
I created and scaled F&B business most of my life and it’s still a company I own today.
During the course of my business, I met many people who aspire to become food entrepreneurs and my job was to help them succeed by franchising food brands and helping them gain knowledge about the food business. During that time also, I realised a lot of people faced capital challenges and this linked to the increasing trend of online food sellers on social media. I saw more and more of my circle of friends start to sell food and since then, the idea about creating a social commerce platform like MyBrand was formed.
Can you tell me about your future plans for MyBrand?
We will focus a lot on the reseller ecosystem. Imagine, a social community where people could provide, purchase, share and enjoy food together. Imagine, by tapping on ones’ network and contacts, people can share the food they love and earn extra income by doing that. That is our vision for My Brand.
The Accelerator
Why did MyBrand, an Indonesian startup choose a Singapore based accelerator?
I see that start-ups in SEA are like one big family and community. I love the fact that I can learn from other countries as well.
What are your top learnings or things you’ve discovered since joining Accelerating Asia?
Succeed through learning & knowledge sharing
Understand much more about a start-up's fundraising journey. I think Accelerating Asia has fine-tuned start-ups to become more investor-ready
What has been the highlight of the course so far?
The network within Accelerating Asia. I love the guys in Cohort 3, they are all super helpful.
Working with the team and mentors to fine-tune our pitch and our fundraising plan
What is your 1 piece of advice for people thinking about joining Accelerating Asia?
It’s a short 100 days that delivers what might otherwise take you years. I highly recommend the Accelerating Asia program. For me, I feel like I have a home to go back to at Accelerating Asia which is really important in this tech start-up journey.
How has Accelerating Asia helped you 10X MyBrand?
The networking and knowledge that are useful for our growth now and some will be useful for later part of my journey.
MyBrand are part of Accelerating Asia Cohort 3 and received investment from our early-stage VC fund. During our last recruitment round for cohort 3, Accelerating Asia received 450 applications from over 25 countries and we have touchpoints with 2000+ startups per year.
If you’re interested in connecting with MyBrand, investing alongside us, meeting our portfolio companies, or just generally interested in talking to us about startup investing, please reach out and tell us a little bit about yourself.