Thailand’s Flash Group is shutting down its courier and logistics operations in Malaysia this month, ending a four-year push into one of Southeast Asia’s most competitive delivery markets.
The company will continue operating in Thailand, where it generates the bulk of its revenue, as well as in the Philippines. The exit underscores the challenges facing regional logistics startups that expanded aggressively during the e-commerce boom, only to confront rising costs and intense price competition as growth normalised.
Flash Express, the group’s flagship delivery arm, entered Malaysia in 2021 and scaled up rapidly. In 2022, it announced plans to create as many as 10,000 jobs in the country as part of a broader Southeast Asian expansion that also included the Philippines and Laos. At the time, Flash said it operated eight hubs in Peninsular Malaysia and one each in Sabah and Sarawak, with most of its workforce deployed in front-line delivery roles.
The retrenchment comes despite Flash Group having recently returned to the black.
The company reached profitability in 2024, generating revenue of 24.7 billion baht ($720 million) and a net profit of 940 million baht ($30 million), per government data. In the three preceding years, revenue fluctuated while losses narrowed: revenue stood at 17.6 billion baht in 2021 with a small profit, fell to 14.8 billion baht in 2022 with a net loss of 2.19 billion baht, and rebounded to 20.1 billion baht in 2023 with a reduced loss of 559 million baht.
Flash Group was crowned Thailand’s first unicorn in 2022 after raising a combined $150 million in Series D+ and Series E funding rounds, led by SCB10X, the venture capital arm of Siam Commercial Bank, and Singapore-based Buer Capital. The company went on to secure 15 billion baht ($447 million) in a Series F round from an undisclosed investor in December 2023.
