Society Pass acquires delivery service Mangan.ph 

LOYALTY and analytics platform Society Pass, Inc. (SoPa) has acquired Philippine restaurant delivery service Mangan.ph as part of its expansion efforts in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia.

In a statement on Thursday, Nasdaq-listed SoPa said that Mangan.ph is its second acquisition in the Philippines and its third food and beverage acquisition overall, as it continues to expand its digital ecosystem across the region.

“SoPa creates a one stop food delivery solution in [the] Philippines with both its grocery delivery service, Pushkart.ph, and restaurant delivery service, Mangan,” it said.

“With this acquisition, SoPa has now amassed over 2.1 million registered consumers and over 6,700 registered merchants/brands onto its ecosystem. The newly acquired business will be integrated into SoPa’s food and beverage vertical, Push Delivery Pte. Ltd., along with Pushkart.ph and #HOTTAB,” it added.

According to SoPa, Mangan.ph delivers restaurant food offered by over 1,200 partner restaurants via its 200-rider network. It delivers food to more than 500,000 registered users.

The platform added that Mangan.ph, founded in 2017, has recorded over 100,000 mobile application downloads and over 80,000 social media followers.

“Operating in Pampanga, the culinary capital of Philippines, Mangan’s geographic reach extends to 16 other cities including Angeles City, San Fernando, Clark, Dau, Mabalacat, Guagua, Lubao, Tarlac, Bataan, Magalang, Pasig, Cabanatuan, Baguio, Lipa Batangas, Antipolo City, Dagupan City,” SoPa said.

“Despite the recent reopening of the economy and the easing of multiple restrictions, online home food ordering remains the new normal in the Philippines, similar to trends in other parts of the world. The convenience of ordering-in coupled with the work-from-home set-up and continued preference to avoid crowds encourage patrons to order as often as they did during the past two years,” it added.

SoPa Philippines Country Manager Arbie Pagdanganan said that SoPa seeks to double its number of registered users to more than 800,000 and increase app downloads to over 200,000 by the end of 2023.

“SoPa aims to double the number of registered users to over 800,000 and drive app downloads to over 200,000 by the end of 2023. We look forward to building out our next generation loyalty platform as well as opportunistically acquiring market-leading companies in food and beverage, lifestyle, digital advertising and travel verticals in the Philippines for the rest of 2022,” Ms. Pagdanganan said.

She added that SoPa is creating a “food delivery behemoth” with its acquisition of Mangan.ph in tandem with Pushkart.ph.

“Combined with Pushkart.ph, which delivers grocery food to consumers in Metro Manila, and Mangan’s operating focus in the provinces, SoPa is creating a food delivery behemoth to serve the 115 million people of Philippines,” she said.

“We enthusiastically welcome Mangan into SoPa’s growing loyalty and data ecosystem. We combine the robust technology and operational efficiency of Mangan with our own brand building expertise,” Ms. Pagdanganan added.

Meanwhile, Mangan.ph Chief Executive Officer Ralph Rile said that the delivery service seeks to expand to other regions across the country.

“We have witnessed tremendous success in our initial goals, and now, aim to expand Mangan beyond Luzon Island to other regions in the Philippines. This is why joining forces with SoPa is our logical next step, and we are excited about the combined capabilities we will now bring to Mangan’s partners and customers,” Mr. Rile said.

Mangan.ph Chief Technology Officer Louie Alcantara said that the delivery service seeks to increase its gross merchandise value (GMV) by the end of the year.

“Mangan has established a reputation of being the top online local food delivery service, achieving over $2 million in GMV yearly. Leveraging SoPa’s marketing platform and capital, we aim to increase GMV multiple fold by the end of 2022,” Mr. Alcantara said.

In February, SoPa acquired grocery delivery service platform Pushkart.ph in a bid to penetrate the online grocery shopping market in the Philippines.

“SoPa’s business model focuses on analyzing user data through its Society Pass loyalty platform and circulation of its universal loyalty points or Society Points. The Society Pass loyalty platform drives customer acquisition and retention for merchants,” it said. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave