F&B Branding and Marketing Powerhouse BROKU is Raising RM20 Million to Further Support Local MSMEs

BROKU – Malaysia’s leading food and beverage (F&B) branding and marketing strategist – is currently working to raise RM 20 million in funds for its expansion over the next 12 to 18 months. Notably, Retail Group Malaysia reports that Malaysian F&B kiosks and stalls experienced significant growth of 13.5% throughout 2023, aligning with BROKU’s mission to support, structure, and supply the growth of Malaysia’s F&B MSMEs. With this in mind, alongside the fundraising, BROKU is launching its flagship product, Broku.com – a digital marketplace specifically for the F&B industry that uses data-driven technology to customise user engagement and drive traffic to merchant outlets.

To date, BROKU has helped nearly 10,000 restaurants undergo a complete business transformation. Furthermore, the brand has raised an additional RM 2.566 million through angel investors. With the total funds raised, BROKU will expand its Malaysian team’s capacity and allocate resources to various initiatives, including marketing efforts, customer acquisition strategies, technology expenses, and operational enhancements.

This will enable the company to not only channel additional funding to restaurants but also increase its marketing expenses. Consequently, BROKU will strengthen its in-house technological infrastructure and expand its partner restaurant network. For the Broku.com platform, the brand aims to have 50,000 merchants listed within 12 months.

“Personally, I have spent over two decades of my career in the entrepreneurship space – specifically in the food and beverage sector – but this is a brand new, monumental, and life-changing milestone not just for me, but for the company,” says Ku Addyfazly Ku Radin (Broku), Founder of BROKU. “It has been such an honour to help local F&B MSMEs turn their businesses around since 2020, especially when I think about how I would have appreciated access to the number of resources and the knowledge that a brand like BROKU can provide at the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey”

Through the extensive collection of transactional data and the monitoring of key performance metrics, BROKU aims to bridge the gap for underserved and underbanked F&B merchants by providing better access to credit and financing facilities. This initiative is designed to help address the RM90 billion financing gap between large corporations and Malaysian MSMEs. In line with this goal, the brand’s secondary offerings include the BROKU Licensing Program (BLP), first launched in April 2023. Through this program, 200 companies at various stages of business growth have learned essential business skills, including how to enhance their online presence through marketing and advertising, and how to improve their supply chain management by leveraging cutting-edge technology. Additionally, the BLP supports F&B merchants in boosting their financial literacy, covering aspects such as navigating financial documentation and management.

This specialised F&B business incubation programme not only provides these underserved participants access to BROKU’s extensive industry network and 24/7 centralised knowledge hub but is also designed to upskill and upgrade the calibre of local F&B entrepreneurs. Overall, the BLP aims to help 3,000 merchants, with a success rate of 86% of participants experiencing growth between 35% to 90%. Most recently, for the merchants currently involved with the BLP, there has been a cumulative RM 15 million client revenue increase in total.

“I am proud to say that we actually saw a 35.6% average increase in revenue for our program participants so far,” adds Broku. “With this funding goal, we hope to be able to reach out to even more local MSMEs and ultimately supercharge the Malaysian F&B scene with business-savvy, world-wise entrepreneurs who will experience sustainable, consistent growth moving forward.”

For more information on BROKU’s funding efforts, visit www.pitchin.my/equity/broku. For more information on BROKU themselves, visit www.broku.my