iLoka Food: Successful startup application of Gen Z Long Khanh group

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hien (right) and Mr. Nguyen Thanh Duy, co-founders of iLoka Food, are coming up with ideas to improve the application. Photo: Ngoc Thanh

At that time, realizing that Long Khanh still neglected an essential service of the digital age: online food ordering and delivery service, these guys came up with an idea to start a business right at home with the food delivery application iLoka Food.

"Localizing" technology applications to serve consumer tastes

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Duy, co-founder of iLoka Food application, shared: The idea of this application comes from the reality of himself and local people about the need to order and deliver food. At that time, Long Khanh still did not have a proper food delivery application, and the response capacity of these applications was not high.

“Our motivation is not only profit, but also the desire to apply technological thinking and expertise in the field of information technology to create utilities for the community. Especially in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, which is still volatile, making the need for home delivery more urgent than ever. Long Khanh is young, dynamic, and has bustling shops, but it lacks an effective technology bridge to connect,” said Thanh Duy.

Shipper of iLoka Food application picks up orders and prepares to deliver to customers in Long Khanh ward, Dong Nai province. Photo: Ha Le

For 3 months, the young men came up with ideas, analyzed consumer behavior, and designed the initial interface for the application they were developing. They worked and learned from many different sources, while saving every little bit of capital to be able to create the shape of their “brainchild” called iLoka Food.

iLoka - short for "I'm from Long Khanh" - was born as a strong positioning of love for the homeland, committed to serving the needs of local people to the fullest. Gen Z boys born in 1997 have devoted all their passion and talent to building a "homegrown" application but with a strong local identity.

After much effort, in December 2021, this founding team officially launched the iLoka Food application and established iLoka Technology Joint Stock Company. This is a meaningful milestone but also extremely challenging, because they have to compete with the familiar psychology of users towards big names, while funding and resources are limited.

iLoka’s startup journey can be summed up in two words: dedication and perseverance. With limited capital, the founders were forced to do everything themselves, from programming, system administration to market development and manual data entry.

iLoka Food's Gen Z team does everything themselves, from programming, system administration to market development. Photo: Ha Le

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hien recalls: The first time was really an arduous journey of “going to every alley, knocking on every… item”. He had to personally introduce and convince each store owner to change their traditional business habits and put their trust in the new technology. This process was not easy, because many stores were still hesitant about the cost, operation and effectiveness of a new application.

“Starting with a modest number of 70 stores, 5 shippers and only 20-50 orders/day, the iLoka team has worked hard to instill trust with perseverance and dedication. We accepted the need to manually enter all store data into the system to ensure accuracy and fast implementation speed. It was this effort that created a ripple effect, and all efforts were gradually rewarded. The number of stores after 1 month of launch exceeded 100 and reached over 100 orders/day” - Mr. Hien said.

Up to now, after nearly 4 years of operation, iLoka has proven its position with impressive numbers, showing that they have successfully built a sustainable bridge between hundreds of business partners and local consumers.

This application has reached nearly 1 million orders and maintained effective performance with about 500-700 orders/day; peak weekends and holidays can exceed 1 thousand orders/day. Currently, iLoka Food has closely linked with 500 operating stores and a team of 40 permanent shippers, creating a solid network.

Towards iLoka multi-service ecosystem in Dong Nai

Thanh Hien believes that the application has achieved its current position thanks to taking advantage of the “geographical advantage” and “human harmony” factors right at home. This is the key factor that helps iLoka retain both partners and customers.

The young founders understand that iLoka’s role is to act as an intermediary, working with all three parties: stores, shippers and customers. Therefore, iLoka always ensures fairness and transparency whenever an incident occurs, contributing to the harmonization of the interests of all three parties. In addition, they constantly improve the application to enhance user experience and pay special attention to developing the shipper team, because this is the team of “brand ambassadors” that retain customers with professional and dedicated service.

The advantage of iLoka Food's shipper team is that they are all local shippers who know the roads well, ensuring that the food delivered to customers is always the freshest. Photo: Ha Le

The advantage of iLoka's shipper team is that they are all local shippers who know the roads well and can deliver "lightning fast" in just 15-20 minutes/order. This is an outstanding competitive advantage, ensuring that the food delivered to customers is always the freshest, something that other applications can hardly achieve in the Long Khanh market.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Duy, co-founder of iLoka Food application, said: The next destination of the iLoka team is the two "super wards" of Dong Nai: Tran Bien and Tam Hiep. These two "super wards" are both dynamic urban areas with dense population and rich development potential.

In particular, Long Khanh’s Gen Z group also aims to build a local multi-service ecosystem. Thanh Duy also “revealed” a big plan, showing the smart combination of technology and regional agricultural advantages. This strategy not only expands the business scale but also demonstrates social responsibility, making iLoka an effective local economic connection tool.

The Gen Z group that founded iLoka Food is aiming to build a local multi-service ecosystem to serve the people of Dong Nai. Screenshot: HL

“In November 2025, we will expand our market to Tran Bien and Tam Hiep wards, and develop a multi-service ecosystem, including motorbike taxis, taxis and especially local agricultural products. We want to take advantage of Long Khanh's specialty fruits such as durian, rambutan, avocado... to become a digital bridge, bringing farmers' agricultural products further" - Mr. Duy shared.

In recent times, the founding team of the iLoka Food application has also regularly participated in programs, festivals, and talk shows of the Provincial Youth Union to inspire and motivate other young people to confidently "establish themselves and start a career", realizing their goals and aspirations of mastering technology and developing the economy, especially right on their "home ground" Dong Nai.

iLoka Technology Joint Stock Company also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Provincial Youth Union and a number of units and localities to aim at the goal of developing a sustainable digital economy in Dong Nai.

Signing ceremony of cooperation agreement between Dong Nai Provincial Youth Union and iLoka Technology Joint Stock Company within the framework of Dong Nai Youth Innovation and Digital Transformation Festival 2025. Photo: NVCC

The Gen Z group that founded and operated the iLoka Food application shared about their startup journey at the iLoka Food Talkshow - Technological breakthroughs of young people organized by Dong Nai Provincial Youth Union on October 8, 2025. Photo: NVCC

Furthermore, in order to prepare for technology and market expansion, iLoka also actively cooperates withFPT Polytechnic College, Dong Nai campus to recruit interns in the field of information technology and e-commerce, thereby creating an internship environment and developing local technology human resources.

The success of the founding team of iLoka Food such as Nguyen Thanh Hien, Nguyen Thanh Duy or Nguyen Quoc Huy is a living proof of the spirit of daring to think and daring to do of the young generation of Dong Nai.

iLoka has proven that, even though starting a business in the local market, with enough passion, effort and deep understanding, the young generation can completely create success and make their homeland famous.

Ha Le

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/kinh-te/202511/iloka-food-ung-dung-khoi-nghiep-thanh-cong-cua-nhom-gen-z-long-khanh-5f1014b/