Portfolio Spotlight: ODD (On Demand Deals)

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Get to know Fernando Ramos, founder and CEO of ODD in the Philippines.

ODD (On Demand Deals) is a social commerce company from the Philippines that empower entrepreneurs to earn extra income from empty spaces by franchising ODD Stores, omnichannel convenience stores that can deliver in minutes.

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What problem is ODD solving?

Basically, the cost of goods in the Philippines continues to increase so our inflation rate is already at 8.7 percent the job opportunities have not increased at the same rate so our projected unemployment rate is already at 6.8% we just want to give people more opportunities to earn income to live their lives.

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What products does ODD offer?

The main product or service that ODD offers is connecting our franchisees to both supply and demand. Franchisees are connected to wholesale and supply, so we offer 350 brands at wholesale prices and quantities in our automated system, and they're also connected to over 6 Million customers through our e-commerce channels, so we connect our franchisees to platforms like the ODD Store app, Grab, Food Panda, Pickeroo, and Toktok, which all deliver to customers in minutes.

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Who is your founding team, and what’s your professional background?

My two co-founders are Gabriel De Los Reyes and Adarsh Kumar. Combined, we have over 20 years of experience in e-commerce, fulfillment logistics, and fintech. I do believe we have a great complementary skill set. I handle growth as CEO; Gab handles our finances as well as our product, so he is our CFO, and Adarsh is our CTO based on engineering technology.

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How did you meet your co-founder?

I met Gab first in college, and we were actually batchmates at Ateneo University. We also had our first job in the same company as management trainees in Zalora, so that's really where I got to know Gab in terms of this work ethic, and I really think it was the early trials that solidified our bond. In terms of Darsh, we actually had a previous startup that was a logistics API aggregator, which we have since pivoted into ODD.

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Why is your team uniquely positioned to grow and deliver the solution?

What I love the most about our team is that we really know how to play to our strengths, and I believe our strengths really complement each other. And in terms of an industry like e-commerce, you need to cover so many bases to get it right. And if you have someone focused on marketing and sales, just like me, someone focused on making the back end work in terms of finance and products, and creating technology to tie everything together that allows us to scale, then we believe you have the recipe for success.

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What countries do you currently operate in? What is your market reach?

So currently we operate in the Philippines, so we have 50 locations that live in the greater Manila area. Our goal this year is to expand that to 170 locations nationwide, but of course, our dreams don't stop there. And our next step is to definitely expand to other nations across Southeast Asia and the rest of the world. And we want to leverage the growing community of overseas Filipino workers to help us achieve that goal of international expansion.

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How is the E-commerce industry growing? 

E-commerce in the Philippines alone is already worth $14 Billion and is projected to grow 17 percent every year until 2025. And we want to ride that wave of e-commerce growth, and our main goal is to help our franchisees reap the benefits of that growth, so for us, it is really empowering as many e-commerce channels as possible so that they can really expand the reach of their ODD store and make more money with their empty spaces.

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How will your startup capitalize on the market’s growth?

ODD acts as a catalyst for growth for franchisees, solving problems on both the supply and  demand sides, so our goal is to work with as many partners as we can on the supply side. We already work with 350 brands that franchisees can sell through their ODD stores, so we want to capitalize on the growing number of businesses and brands that we can sell online, and of course, in terms of how to sell these products, we want a basic part with more e-commerce channels. So currently we have five, but of course we want to launch many more, and you know, the more we expand to other geographies around the world, the more e-commerce partners we can partner with.

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What is your revenue/business model?

In terms of our business model, we make money in three ways. We charge a $4,400 initial franchise investment, so that's how much it costs a franchisee to set up an ODD store. We also enjoy 10% wholesale margins every time that they buy products from us in our wholesale marketplace in the ODD management system, and we also charge 2.5% transaction fees on the use of the automatic system in our ODD store app. We've been able to raise over $500, 000 within our lifetime, so we've been alive for around two years with that money, and we've generated over $900,000 in gross revenue and around $200,000 in gross profit.

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Where do you see your startup in the next 6-12 months?

In the next six months, I really see ODD expanding nationwide in the Philippines, and that means launching franchise locations across major cities in the Philippines, not just in Luzon or the greater Manila area but also in Visayas and Mindanao, which are the other two islands in the Philippines. For us, in terms of the next 12 months, we definitely want to target international expansion, so we want to target, you know, geographies in Southeast Asia that are very similar to the Philippines, such as Malaysia, Vietnam, and Indonesia, and we really see us working with more overseas Filipino workers to achieve that goal.

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Is ODD currently fundraising, and if so, how much?

There is a unique opportunity at the moment because we're raising a bridge round of $300,000 at a 3.5 billion dollar post-money valuation, so with this money, you want to achieve $1.2 Million in annual gross revenue this year. I'm happy to say that more than half of the round has been committed, so we're definitely excited to onboard more investors and partners to help us grow our family franchisees.

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Where can our audience learn more about ODD?

They can visit our website https://www.ondemand.deals/ so they can learn more about our franchisee experiences, the e-commerce platforms we work with, and all the brands that they can sell via their ODD store. They can also reach out to me at fernandondemand@deals.com

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How did you discover Accelerating Asia?

I actually discovered Accelerating Asia through other portfolio companies in the Philippines, so I've met the founders of both Mayani and Cocotel, and they've spoken very highly of the program. Just seeing the way they've been able to scale their business in our country really inspired us to apply.and just seeing the way they've been able to scale their business in our country really inspired us to apply.

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Why did you decide to join Accelerating Asia?

I really think the community of founders it has is its biggest resource, its social capital. And of course, the financial capital helps us grow the business in the short term but no longer retrieves the long-term relationships that we're able to build early on that I believe will lead to long-term success.

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