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!!
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