GrabSteel Founders Unveil Matcon, AI Platform for Construction Materials in Southeast Asia, Launching Q1 2027
Johor Bahru, Malaysia, August 31st, 2026, Chainwire
Built by traders with fifteen years in the physical steel market, the platform will give hardware stores, contractors and manufacturers live prices, firm quotations and arranged delivery in one order, and give mills a live view of what the market is buying
Barry Lee Wee Chan and Alvis Chong, the founders of GrabSteel, a Malaysian steel and construction materials trading company, today unveiled Matcon, a digital platform on which hardware stores, construction companies, fabricators and manufacturers will be able to check live prices, obtain firm quotations, place orders and arrange delivery for the full range of construction materials in one place. Matcon is scheduled to open to buyers in the first quarter of 2027.
Days for a Quotation, Then the Price Moves
The platform takes aim at the way building materials have been bought for decades. A buyer needing steel typically waits days for a quotation, watches the price move before an order can be placed, and carries the risk of material arriving late or off specification while a site or a production line stands idle. On Matcon, a buyer will see the current price, enter a grade, specification, quantity and destination, and receive a firm price and a firm delivery date. Transport is arranged within the same order, so the buyer is not left to find a lorry after the deal is done.
Mills See the Market as It Moves
Matcon is being built for the supply side as well. Mills and manufacturers supplying the platform will see a live, aggregated view of what buyers across the market are ordering, updated as orders come in, so that production can be planned against orders that exist rather than estimates of orders that might.
The Part the Founders Are Not Talking About Yet
There is a part of Matcon the founders are not yet prepared to discuss in detail. The platform uses artificial intelligence to analyse the market, reading price movements, order flow and demand across the region together and continuously, so that what a buyer or a mill sees on screen reflects where the market is, not where it was last week. GrabSteel will show more when the platform opens.
Built in the Physical Trade, Not in Software
The founders come from the physical trade, not from software. GrabSteel was founded in 2019 and is led by Barry Lee Wee Chan, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, and Alvis Chong, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, each with the better part of fifteen years in the steel business. The company supplies hot-rolled coils, cold-rolled coils, galvanised steel, steel plates, hot-rolled and cold-rolled deformed steel bars and aluminium coils to manufacturers, fabricators, roll formers and construction supply chains across ASEAN, working directly with mills. It has grown to more than 100 active industrial customers, most of them repeat buyers, without outside capital.
An 87.9 Million Tonne Market Still Bought by Phone
The market Matcon is built for is large and still mostly offline. The world produces close to 1.9 billion tonnes of steel a year. According to the South East Asia Iron and Steel Institute, the six largest ASEAN economies consumed more than 81 million tonnes in 2024, and the institute expects that figure to reach 87.9 million tonnes in 2026. Taken as one market, Southeast Asia trails only China, India and the United States. Construction accounts for more than 60 per cent of that demand, and most of it is still bought by phone, messaging app and personal relationship.
India Has Already Shown Where This Goes
That gap has already produced one of Asia’s largest young companies. In India, building materials platform Infra.Market has built annual revenue of more than US$2 billion, was valued at about US$2.8 billion in its most recent funding round, and received regulatory clearance for an initial public offering in January 2026. Southeast Asia’s construction materials trade has nothing comparable yet.
Steel First, Then Everything on the Site
GrabSteel is building Matcon as what it calls a super app for construction materials: one application in which a hardware store, a contractor or a factory can price, order and track every material a project needs, from mill to site. Steel is the anchor category because it is the material GrabSteel already trades at scale, and one of the largest single lines in any construction budget. The rest of the range will be supplied through Matcon’s supplier network.
The Three Questions Every Buyer Asks
Every steel buyer asks the same three questions. What is the real price today, can you actually deliver it, and when,” said Barry Lee Wee Chan, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of GrabSteel. “Alvis and I have spent the better part of fifteen years answering those questions one phone call at a time. Matcon puts the answers on a screen, for steel first and then for everything else that goes into a building.
The hard part of this trade is not selling steel. It is making sure the right material reaches the right site on the day it was promised,” said Alvis Chong, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of GrabSteel. “That is why delivery sits inside the platform rather than being left to the buyer. And because every order on Matcon is real demand, the mills will be able to see what the market wants while it is being ordered, not months later in a sales report.
Designed and Built by Sky Venture Labs
Matcon is being designed and developed by Sky Venture Labs, the operator-led venture partner and technology development partner co-founded by Sky Wee and Allen Tan Chee Hoe, which also advises GrabSteel on corporate strategy and product direction.
Steel is one of the largest markets on earth and one of the least modernised, and the companies that will change that are the ones that already command the physical trade, not the ones that arrive with an app and no supply,” said Sky Wee, Co-Founder of Sky Venture Labs. “GrabSteel has the mills, the customers and the operating discipline. Our work is to turn that into a product the whole market can use.
Opening in the First Quarter of 2027
GrabSteel will publish the opening date and registration details for buyers and suppliers at www.matcon.io.
About
Matcon
Matcon is a digital platform for the construction materials trade, built and operated by GrabSteel. It will give hardware stores, contractors, fabricators, roll formers and manufacturers live prices, firm quotations, ordering and arranged delivery across the full range of construction materials, beginning with steel supplied through GrabSteel’s own mill and supplier network, and will give manufacturers a live view of market demand, with artificial intelligence analysing prices and order flow across the region. The platform opens to buyers in the first quarter of 2027. www.matcon.io
GrabSteel
GrabSteel is a steel and construction materials trading company serving manufacturers, fabricators, roll formers, contractors and construction supply chains across ASEAN. Founded in 2019, the company supplies hot-rolled coils, cold-rolled coils, galvanised steel, steel plates, hot-rolled and cold-rolled deformed steel bars and aluminium coils, working directly with mills and suppliers to source material to specification. www.grabsteel.ai
Sky Venture Labs
Sky Venture Labs is an operator-led venture partner, technology development partner, strategic advisory platform and capital readiness partner co-founded by Sky Wee and Allen Tan Chee Hoe. The company works with founders and established businesses across venture studios and technology development, operator advisory, and fundraising readiness and capital strategy, working hands-on alongside management teams. Sky Venture Labs does not broker or sell securities, solicit investments or receive investor funds on behalf of its clients. www.skyventurelabs.com