Lavu offers free service to ART-impacted firms
Monthly fees waived for restaurants, bars
Lavu Inc. is offering its pointof-sale software system free of charge to restaurants and bars impacted by the Albuquerque Rapid Transit Project starting this week.
The company will wave its monthly fee for as long as ART construction continues, Lavu President Ohad Johassi told the Journal on Monday.
“We know how difficult it’s been for businesses along the Central Avenue corridor, and this is our way of helping,” Johassi said. “We’re located on the same corridor, and we’re aware of the pain at local restaurants.”
Lavu’s system allows food and beverage establishments to conduct most operations on mobile devices. Restaurants and bars can integrate all front- and backend operations into a single platform that processes everything in real time.
Table servers, for example, can take orders directly on iPads or smartphones, allowing cooks to instantly read them on screens in the kitchen. The meals are automatically logged and processed for payment at a tabletbased cash register.
Restaurants or bars that already use mobile point-of-sale systems can receive Lavu service for free using the same equipment they’ve already installed, Johassi said. Users do need Lavu’s PayPal-based credit card reader, but Lavu will provide that for free to any ART-impacted establishment that wants to connect to the free service.
For restaurants with multiple terminals, savings can add up fast.
“The average restaurant we serve has three to four terminals, which could mean a savings of about $270 a month,” Johassi said. “And there’s no obligation to continue Lavu service after ART construction ends. We just want to help our neighbors.”
Lavu, a homegrown Albuquerque startup that launched in 2010, continues to grow rapidly. The company now boasts 20,000 food and beverage businesses using its system in 88 countries.
Lavu currently employs 117 people, 86 of them at its offices in the Theater Building at Central Avenue and 1st Street in Downtown. That’s up from about 60 people in early 2016. The company still has 31 positions open, including 25 more in Albuquerque. It also employs some software developers at a new office in India.