Online grocery startup honestbee, once one of Singapore's most hyped tech companies, was wound up in July 2020 after racking up debts of more than S$240 million. Co-founder and former CEO Joel Sng was ousted in 2019 amid allegations of extravagant spending and questionable transactions, and was later declared bankrupt.
Co-founded in 2015 by Joel Sng, Isaac Tay and Jonathan Low, honestbee expanded rapidly across Asia, offering grocery delivery, food delivery, laundry and concierge services. Its crown jewel was habitat by honestbee, a sprawling tech-enabled grocery and dining concept that opened in October 2018 and was meant to showcase the future of retail.
Behind the glossy expansion, finances were deteriorating. The company sought court-supervised restructuring in 2019, disclosing debts of around US$180 million, with court documents later showing it owed creditors S$247.7 million by August 2019. Sng was removed as CEO in May 2019 and replaced by investor Brian Koo. Reports alleged Sng had gone on an extravagant spending spree, including property purchases and undeclared apartment rentals, and had routed company payments through shell entities. Honestbee later took legal action against its former chief over questionable transactions.
The restructuring failed. By March 2020 the company had retrenched 80 per cent of its workforce and was delaying salaries and CPF contributions; the Ministry of Manpower confirmed it owed staff about S$1 million in wages. A last-ditch investment by Koo's FLK Holdings fell through as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and in April 2020 a creditor applied to wind the company up. The High Court issued a liquidation order in July 2020. The habitat site was taken over as a RedMart fulfilment centre.
Sng was declared bankrupt in May 2022. The liquidator, BDO, recovered only a fraction of what was owed, managing to retrieve about S$700,000 in assets for the sole secured creditor while unsecured creditors got virtually nothing.
Honestbee's implosion joined Zilingo and others in a grim parade of Singapore startup failures, and it hardened investor attitudes toward cash-burning business models. For many, the honestbee story remains the definitive cautionary tale of the city-state's first startup boom: charismatic founders, lavish spending, and a business that was never as solid as its marketing suggested.
After Sng's removal in May 2019, key investor Brian Koo took over operations but resigned months later in September; Ong Lay Ann was then named CEO to lead restructuring efforts. The company converted debt to equity, laid off 38 employees in operations and engineering, and exited food delivery.
Legal troubles multiplied: Mirae Asset Daewoo sued Sng in the High Court over share purchases, and the Ministry of Manpower confirmed the company owed February 2020 salaries and January-February CPF contributions. By the time the winding-up order came in July 2020, the liquidator could recover only scraps for unsecured creditors.