Megaworld Corp. is spending $5 million, approximately P250 million, in the next three years to build its digital commerce infrastructure that will support its business.
The company said the investment will be done through unit AGILE Digital Ventures, which will engage in “investing and building technology start-ups that hope to support the country’s food, retail, and hospitality industries during these challenging times.”
“This first start-up investment is called PICK.A.ROO, an all-in-one, on-demand premium lifestyle delivery app, which is set for public roll-out in August,” the company said.
“As the country’s first homegrown app, customers can purchase products ranging from food, gadgets, hardware, kitchenware, children’s toys and stuff, pet care, personal care, medicines, office and school supplies, hotel dishes, liquor, to COVID-19 essentials, from over 300 local and international merchants. Orders may either be delivered on-demand, or on a later schedule,” it added.
Megaworld said PICK.A.ROO riders and shoppers undergo “strict safety and sanitation protocols which include rapid testing, thermal scanner checks, thorough disinfection of delivery bags, including the provision of clinical-grade face shields and masks.”
“Our main goal is to help retailers smoothly migrate to the digital platform especially during this challenging time. Since 2018, we have been looking for investment opportunities on an app that will enable our retail partners sell and deliver their products online and on-demand. We have talked to several potential partners, but eventually, we decided to build our own,” said Kevin Tan, Megaworld chief strategy officer and AGILE Digital Ventures president.
“We started from scratch to build our first start-up brand. Aside from the technology itself, we put focus on operations which will be integral to the success of every brand that we create,” he added.
Tan said that aside from PICK.A.ROO, Megaworld is also looking for other investment opportunities in digital technology platforms that will further boost Megaworld’s core businesses.
