Meta Invests in Start-up Helping Users to Sell via WhatsApp

Meta announced its investment in Take App, a new Singaporean start-up founded by former Facebook engineering manager Youmin Kim, who left the social network last year to work on a new product.

Take App aims to to bridge the digital gap for small-business owners in Southeast Asia. A large number of companies around the world have been using WhatsApp to build their business, but so far there have been few attempts to adapt the messenger to the demands of entrepreneurs. Take App has its analogues in other parts of the globe, such as Germany-based Charles, which recently raised $20 million to bring conversational commerce and newsletters to WhatsApp in Europe.

Basically, Take App allows users with little technical know-how to set up a simple website to facilitate online orders, replete with a shopping cart, payments and a direct connection to WhatsApp for managing and tracking the final order.

While the core Take App service is free, the company offers a bunch of premium features, including things like advanced analytics, unlimited image uploads and custom domain names.

Take App is a fledgeling start-up that recently graduated Y Combinator as part of the accelerator’s Winter 22 batch.