Society Pass Incorporated (SoPa), a Southeast Asian data-driven loyalty platform, announced on Monday its acquisition of Dream Space Trading Company Limited (Dream Space), the operator of online grocery delivery service Handycart that is based in Hanoi, Vietnam. 

Handycart is SoPa’s third acquisition in Vietnam following its purchases of e-commerce marketplace Leflair and merchant software platform #HOTTAB.

Founded in 2019, Handycart is an online grocery delivery app with its own fleet of delivery vehicles dedicated to servicing the South Korean restaurant market and F&B sector in Hanoi. 

South Korean food and pop culture have taken Vietnam by storm, driven by the growing 'Korean Wave' -- a neologism referring to the increase in the popularity of South Korean culture since the late 1990s -- with a recent survey by market research firm Q&Me having found that 58 percent of Vietnamese favor South Korean cuisine.

Seo Jun Ho, founder and CEO of Handycart, claimed that the app has gathered a loyal user base of over 3,000, with more than 26,000 orders in 2021 alone.

SoPa is an acquisition-focused e-commerce holding company operating across five interconnected verticals, namely lifestyle, F&B, travel, merchant software, and loyalty, in Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Its business model focuses on collecting user data through the expected circulation of its universal loyalty points.

The firm stated that it has amassed over 1.6 million registered consumers and above 3,500 registered merchants/brands on its platform.

Ngo Thi Cham, SoPa Vietnam country general manager, said Handycart will be integrated into SoPa’s F&B delivery vertical with its existing merchant POS and business app #HOTTAB.

“We are determined to increase merchant coverage to 500 restaurants in Hanoi by the end of 2022 and look to expand to Ho Chi Minh City in the third quarter of 2022,” Cham said.

In line with the strategic deal, Handycart CEO Seo Jun Ho has been named head of the new business unit managing both Handycart and #HOTTAB in Vietnam. 

Vietnam has been one of the fastest-growing economies in Southeast Asia over the past two decades. 

The country’s e-commerce is growing tremendously, valued at US$13.2 billion, and is expected to grow steadily from 2021 until 2025, according to the Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM).

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