The deal follows similar acquisitions of Groupon Indonesia and Malaysia in 2016

Southeast Asia’s online-to-offline (O2O) e-commerce company Fave (formerly KFit Group) has acquired online deals and discounts platform Groupon’s Singapore business.

The details of the transaction remain undisclosed.

Fave said in a statement that the deal is set to solidify the company’s efforts in helping consumers save while driving growth for local businesses across Southeast Asia.

The acquisition of the Groupon Singapore’s business follows similar acquisitions of Groupon Indonesia and Groupon Malaysia in 2016. Thus far, Groupon Malaysia has been fully integrated into Fave, while Groupon Indonesia is set to follow suit in the coming months.

Groupon Singapore will see a similar integration into Fave by mid-2017. The transaction is expected to close later this week.

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The Fave team, which also founded the region’s leading fitness sharing platform KFit, is aiming to innovate and drive O2O across multiple lifestyle categories in Southeast Asia.

“With one of the highest smartphone penetration in the world at 85 per cent and a highly competitive market for offline businesses, Fave’s ability to connect digitally savvy consumers to offline businesses will play a key role in the company’s success in the region,” said Ng Aik-Phong, Managing Director, Fave Singapore.

Fave’s mobile-first approach provides a cashless transactional experience to consumers who live online that are looking to discover and enjoy a wide variety of experiences from offline businesses. From restaurants to spas and hotels to theme parks, businesses who have partnered with Fave in Singapore include Naughty Nuri’s, Pastamania, Shangri-La, and Holiday Inn.

“Fave helps our business partners succeed in mobile commerce by providing proprietary business tools and access to a highly-engaged consumer audience where they can offer flexible promotions, loyalty programs and more, with the goal of helping our partners gain new customers and retain existing customers,” said Joel Neoh, Founder of Fave.

“We are very excited about the opportunity to combine Groupon Singapore’s success with our technology, to further enhance convenience for consumers while creating more growth opportunities for local businesses. We’ve seen tremendous growth in the adoption of O2O platforms by local businesses across Southeast Asia over the past year, and the benefits our platform offers today is just the beginning of more to come,” added Neoh.

Fave Group was started in April 2015 as a fitness sharing platform. The company then expanded to include various other verticals, such as food & restaurants, beauty & wellness, and lifestyle & activities. The platforms under the group (Fave, Groupon Indonesia and KFit) claim to have connected millions of customers to thousands of offline businesses in key Southeast Asian market centres. With a strong base in Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur, Fave Group aims to build the future of mobile commerce in Southeast Asia.

Image Credit: mipan / 123RF Stock Photo

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