MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Let’s Eat Bai (LEB), RAFI Micro-finance Boost Access for Food Retailers to Online Sales, Deliveries to Aid in COVID-19 Adjustment

A unit of Philippines-based Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Incorporated (RAFI), RAFI Micro-finance Incorporated (RMF), recently began a partnership with Let’s Eat Bai (LEB), an online delivery and advertising service in the Philippine city of Cebu. RMF has linked the Facebook group it has developed for its clients, Tindahan Ni Nanay (TNN), with LEB to provide “access to [a] wider online market and to promote business transformation among RAFI’s micro-entrepreneurs through online platforms.” Among the goals of the partnership is to aid RMF clients in adjusting to the COVID-19 pandemic by boosting sales “with LEB’s broad market influence [and] TNN’s food and services entrepreneurs…as they join the community of online sellers.”

Jonar Dorado, the COO of RMF stated, “Aside from the marketing and promotional support that we will be providing, we will be endorsing pre-screened riders [delivery drivers] to Let’s Eat Bai…. There will also be opportunities for training and development for RAFI Microfinance clients, riders and LEB merchants.”

RMF provides loans of up to PHP 300,000 (USD 6,277) as well as services relating to financial literacy, marketing, technology and developing value chains. RMF also operates Kaagabay Micro-insurance, which offers “social protection coverage to all the members of the famil[ies] of its clients.” In May 2021, RMF launched TNN, which has grown to include approximately 4,400 members and 175 merchants as of August 2021. RAFI, the parent organization of RMF, is active in humanitarian, environmental, educational, cultural, leadership and health initiatives.

Let’s Eat Bai (LEB) is an online delivery and advertising service focused on promoting small-scale “food entrepreneurs” through its mobile app, which launched in March 2020. In addition to food, LEB merchants offer catering and deliveries of household supplies.

By Harriet Ritchie, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

RAFI press release
https://www.rafi.org.ph/rafinforms/rafi-micro-finance-inc-s-tindahan-ni-nanay-partners-with-lets-eat-bai-to-further-expand-the-market-of-micro-entrepreneurs

RMF homepage
https://rmf.org.ph/

LEB homepage
https://leb.com.ph/

LEB app on the App Store
https://apps.apple.com/ph/app/leb-user/id1517263940?fbclid=IwAR0w5ijz-o6MaSL1KLPcMM75M-hZPdiB3N-b6meeYaIHxQnJnXqQmmuRALQ

LEB app on Google Play
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ph.com.leb.user

RMF 2019 annual report https://issuu.com/rafibdg/docs/rafi_20annual_20report_202019_m_20_1_/1

TNN Facebook group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2888343247923182/

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