Me&u and Mr Yum merge to become the worlds #1 mobile ordering platform

2 startups in the hospitality industry Mr Yum and Me&U- who both started on 2018 and negotiated Covid and investment of $165m are doing a cashless merging to become the #1 mobile order & pay platform on the planet - with Over $2bn in transactions per year in 6,000 venues, across 3 continents. 

A host of the who’s who of investors and advisors have been involved - and are looking for a unicorn type payday!

The team 

Kim Teo (Mr Yum’s co-founder & CEO) as CEO of the merged business, Steve Premutico (me&us founder ) will sit on the board as a non-executive director & me&u’s current Chair Damian Smith will assume Chair of the combined company.

The Money 

Mr Yum raised more than $100 million the last raise being  $89 million in a Series A led by US VC giant Tiger Global in November 2021. 

Investors include 

Steve Baxter’s TEN13, Airtree Ventures, Skip Capital, the family fund of Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar and his wife Kim Jackson, as well as Tennis Australia’s Wildcard Ventures, Broadsheet founder Nick Shelton, Australian NBA star Patty Mills, musician Rüfüs Du Sol, and Kogan founder Ruslan Kogan.

Me&u raised $30 million in December 2022  in a round led by Acorn Capital raising $66 million in total. 

Investors include chef Neil Perry, Urban Purveyor Group founder John Szangolies, and former Facebook, Uber, MYOB and Google execs William Easton, Mike Abbott, Tim Reed, and Jason Pellegrino.

It has dominated the Australian pub ordering market, thanks in no small part to investors Justin Hemmes, CEO of the Merivale, with the app rolled out across his hotels empire.

Me&u has 70% market share of the country’s top pub groups compared to 20% for Mr Yum and 10% for others.

The merged business will supply 6,000 venues collectively, generating around $39 million annually in revenue from processing more than A$2 billion in orders in Australia, New Zealand, UK and USA. 

It’s on track to reach profitability in 2024 with significant cash reserves. 

What their customers say 

What the key clients have said about the companies at www.drinkdigest.com

Justin Hemme’s of Merivale - arguably the king of the Pub market in Sydney - said that Me&u has been a game changer for his business - and that Iit’s exciting to see two Aussie-born start-ups join forces to unlock the future of hospitality on a global scale. 

“Together they are revolutionising service, operations and experience in the hospitality industry – I look forward to seeing what lies ahead.”

Australian Venue Co CEO Paul Waterson said: “I vividly remember the day in 2019 when we implemented Mr Yum in our venue Hopscotch for the first time. Not having to leave your seat to get a beer still feels as magical to me today as it did that day. Now seeing the two global leaders in the space come together to further develop the mobile ordering space is exciting for the Australian hospitality sector and our customers.”

Stevan Premutico said it was “a rare opportunity to see two strong Australian companies coming together to take on the world”.

Australia has the highest penetration of QR code table ordering globally - its time to go global!!

AJE another Aussie fashion Success story

Edwina Forest and Adrian Norris, the co-founders of AJE have  developed one of Australia’s fastest-growing fashion brands - 15 years in the making of an overnight success - A brand that is often compared to Zimmermann, 

AjE (an acronym for “Adrian joins Edwina”, ) is for women in touch with their inner girl and  now employs about 500 people and turnover  over $100m with healthy margins  (By comparison, Cue has 1200 employees, Zimmermann has 900.) 

Beth Glancey is the new chief executive of AjE. (Whose sister is chief of staff at Atlassian), 

Forest and Norris have assembled an amazing board , which includes former Bank of Queensland CEO Stuart Grimshaw and they have a small group of committed Investors ,  Shareholders and advisers

 Investors 

• Norris and Forest retain the majority share 
• Norris’ father 
• James Roche (an executive director at Roche Holdings, a mining group) and 
• Thomas Mort, whose family owns the Bodalla dairy business (Mort also runs TSM Investments)

The journey 

Adrian Norris and Edwina Forest met while 

Edwina had  a fashion shop in Noosa called Strada - stocking brands such as Kit Willow, Josh Goot and Sass and Bide while  Adrian was a fashion editor. 

They decided to take the plunge and together developed the aje brand . Adrian moved to Bali in 2007 where he set up production .

Their business model was a mix of wholesaling and direct-to-consumer, opening their first store under Hugo’s in Sydney’s Potts Point.

 Their physical stores were pumping while  their wholesale business was chewing cash !!

“We were working our arses off and had nothing to show for it,” says Norris “Retail was the way to make money,” 

“People would pay us straight away, instead of this big long production cycle where you might never see the money, or you might see $1000 nine months later instead of the $30,000 the customers  owed you.”

Between 2011 and 2015, AJE  closed its wholesale business  and opened  two new stores in Chapel Street, Melbourne, and James Street, Brisbane. 

With the money that began flowing in, they hired their first staff members and the flywheel was created !!!

Ending AJE’s wholesale business was a game changer and the retail business became a cash cow .

AJE dipped its toes back into wholesale in 2015 with larger accounts - and can be found in David Jones, Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue in the US, La Samaritaine in France, Selfridge’s in the UK and Etoile in the Middle East, as well as online at Net-a-Porter and Matches Fashion. 

 They launched AJE Athletica in 2021 –  as the athleisure wear became popular - and there are now 15 standalone Athletica stores and in August, the brand hosted its first-ever runway show.

A Secret Sauce of Success 

Glancey describes Adrian Norris  as a “force of nature with a financial nous. 

- Having coaches and mentors have been a game changer - says Adrian . he employs three different personal trainers, a mental health coach, a life coach and an energy healer named Tiki. 

- Remaining humble 

Despite the company’s success, edwina says she still feels humble -“I look back and think, ‘how did we survive?’” 

The people who love the Brand 

Tanya (my daughter) wearing AJE for her wedding :) 

Where to from here 

This year, AJE showed at Australian Fashion Week for the ninth time 

Next year it plans to open in New York. 

With  25pc of sales being  overseas, Norris wants NYC to be the first of many international stores and a stepping stone to ultimately showing at New York Fashion Week. 

In 2022, retail sales grew by 279 per cent and revenue was up 217 per cent, and there is a rumour  that Country Road Group wants to buy the Brand!

Norris is looking at AJE being a unicorn in the not too distant future !

I for one think that he will achieve his goal sooner than later!

Inspired by The Fashion issue of AFR Magazine is out on Friday,  August 25 inside The Australian Financial Review.

Life as an entrepreneur

Who can relate ?

Being an entrepreneur you go through more emotions than the weather during a day in Melbourne! 

• I’m excited
• Ugh this is hard - I shouldn’t have 
• It’s working
• Shit - I messed up
• This is awesome 
• I think I’m going bankrupt - how to pay the wages
• I’m good - why do I doubt myself
• I shouldn’t have - I sick 
• I’m an overnight success - life is great! 

Help us keep Australia Awesome

Australia is leading the way with a global collaboration between  institutional investors and the Australian governments on global climate change 

 25 organisations with approximately US$8 trillion (AU$12.2 trillion) in assets under management are identifying ways on how we can create a net zero global economy .

So who are some of the Investors ? 

 Aviva Investors, BNP Paribas Asset Management, Brandywine Global, HESTA, Nordea, Robeco and Schroders are facilitating the collaboration - supported by 

Achmea, Ardea Investment Management, Brown Advisory, Candriam, Colchester Global Investors, Fidelity International, First Sentier Investors, IFM Investors, Insight Investment, Jupiter Asset Management, LGPS Central, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Munich Re, Neuberger Berman, Pendal Group, QIC, Rest and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management.

Some of the goals include 

• Closing the gap between current action and a Paris-aligned emissions reduction trajectory;
• Establishing  detailed, credible, and economy-wide net zero transition plans with supporting policy mechanisms, budget expenditure and investment structures;
• Building greater climate adaptation and resilience across the economy and community to avoid worsening disruption and damage from physical risks;
• Improving disclosure of sovereign exposure to climate risks and opportunities consistent with international standards.

PRI Chief Executive Officer, David Atkin, said institutional investors understand that sovereign responses to climate change will be critical drivers of global action and capital allocators could be strong allies in helping accelerate the necessary economic transition.

“Collaboration  between sovereigns and investors can help make this happen says David Atkin - head of pRI https://www.unpri.org/climate-change

Robeco’s chief engagement officer, said he was heartened by the level of engagement to date 

Duncan Smith 

Head of APAC Communications, PRI  
duncan.smith@unpri.org 

https://www.csiro.au/en/research/environmental-impacts/climate-change/climate-change-information

https://www.climatechange.environment.nsw.gov.au/australian-climate-change-observations#:~:text=Australia's%20climate%20has%20warmed%20since,night%2Dtime%20temperatures%20have%20increased.

Key points

• Australia is experiencing the effects of global climate change.
• Our average land and sea temperatures have increased.
• Despite large natural variation we are also seeing changes to rainfall patterns, increased fire danger, and rising sea levels. 
• Most of the changes observed over recent decades will continue and worsen in the future. 

Current outlook for Australia

Most of the changes observed over recent decades will continue into the future. Projections suggestthat for Australia:

• hot days will become hotter and more frequent 
• the time in drought will increase across southern Australia
• snow depths will decline 
• extreme rainfall events will become more intense 
• sea levels will rise 
• oceans will become more acidic.

The NSW and Australian Regional Climate Modelling (NARCliM) project.

A startup Investment of Note!

Apple’s first investor mike markkula - who invested $250k for  1/3 of Apple - the investment would Morle be worth $930billion 

He invested in Steve Jobs - he believed in Steve and invested in him and his idea…. had trust courage and faith that Steve would succeed and boy - did he ever!! 

Do you have someone that you believe in - and have invested in?