Mr Yum rival Me&u raised $30 million in a spherical led by Acorn Capital in December 2022 to offer the three.5-year-old startup sufficient runway for its push to be worthwhile subsequent monetary yr.
The increase was led by Acorn Capital, with the one acknowledgement of the funding showing within the ASX-listed (ASX:ACQ) funding firm’s December quarter replace, launched in early January.
Me&u lets restaurant and pub clients order and pay for food and drinks by way of a QR-code on the tables. It was launched by Stevan Premutico in 2019. He beforehand based restaurant reserving platform Dimmi (now rebranded as The Fork), earlier than it was acquired by TripAdvisor in 2015.
The hospitality app beforehand raised $8 million in a Sequence B in December 2019 and 12 months in the past, was reportedly in search of $50 million in its newest spherical after carry on Katrina Barry, the previous MD of Trafalgar and Contiki, as CEO.
Information of the $30 million Sequence C spherical, which takes the entire raised to $66 million, emerged as an apart in an interview Barry had with the 9 newspapers.
She stated the corporate was nonetheless dropping cash, however added: “We’ll break even this yr in monetary yr 2024. That’s what I’m utilizing that $30 million for.”
In 2021 Me&u expanded to UK and in 2022 into Texas and California. Premutico is now based mostly within the US and is targeted on development there, with Barry taking the lead in Australia and the UK.
Identical to rival Mr Yum, which raised $89 million in a Sequence A led by Tiger International in November 2021, then reduce staffing twice within the final 8 months, together with one other 40 jobs final month, Me&u reduce 20 roles – round 17% of its workforce of 125 – in July final yr, Barry revealed to increase the corporate’s runway and reduce money burn.
The enterprise now providers round 1,250 venues in Australia, alongside 120 locations within the US and one other 100 within the UK.
The tech startup has a number of excessive profile backers from the hospitality business, most notably Merivale CEO Justin Hemmes, with the smartphone app rolled out throughout his Sydney pub empire. Different backers embrace chef Neil Perry, City Purveyor Group founder John Szangolies, who like Perry, had a profitable exit after promoting his restaurant group to a personal fairness agency, and former Fb, Uber, MYOB and Google execs William Easton, Mike Abbott, Tim Reed, and Jason Pellegrino.
In its quarterly replace, Acorn Capital cited Me&u has having 70% market share of the nation’s high pub teams in comparison with 20% for Mr Yum and 10% for others.
Me&u was contacted for touch upon its increase. We’ll replace this if we hear again.