LAVU GETS AGGRESSIVE
POINT-OF-SALE SOFTWARE FIRM PLANS RAPID EXPANSION OF PRODUCTS, MARKETS
Albuquerque’s homegrown point-of-sale software service for restaurants has a new CEO, plus aggressive plans to increase Lavu Inc.’s products, services and markets. Lavu board Chairman Mirza Baig announced Thursday that Saleem Khatri, a serial entrepreneur and former Goldman Sachs and Oaktree Capital Management employee, will become CEO, effective immediately.
“Saleem is a rare breed of leader who’s both a strategic visionary and a great operations manager,” Baig told the Journal. “He has 17 years of experience in high-growth businesses.”
That’s critical as Lavu enters a new phase of expansion, Baig said.
The company plans to evolve Lavu from its traditional focus on point-of-sale tools for restaurants to conduct daily service operations on mobile devices to a comprehensive business-management option for restaurants with data analytics, workforce oversight and inventory control.
“It’s an expansion of the business mission from a mobile tool to a central command system that broadens the product footprint inside restaurants and transforms our company into an enterprise-like solution for restaurants,” Baig said.
Albuquerque startup entrepreneurs Andy Lim and Corey Fiala launched Lavu in 2010 with new hardware and software tools for restaurants to manage services on mobile devices in real time on a single, integrated platform. Table servers, for example, can take orders directly on tablets 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 register.
Under the new central command concept, the system will provide more options for customers on the go to rapidly select and pay for things online, while providing management with data analytics to better control labor and inventory.
“Owners and managers will be able to control the entire restaurant with our point-of-sale system to monitor who is working on any given day and time and oversee inventory with automatic orders to providers,” Khatri said. “It will be a smart device that thinks more intuitively.”
Lim and Fiala built Lavu into a global business with customers in 80 countries, encouraging Washington, D.C.-based Aldrich Capital Partners to invest $15 million in the company in 2015. Since then, Aldrich has established offices in Miami and India and grown sales to 93 countries.
“We have plans now to rapidly expand into more
regions,” said Baig, Aldrich’s managing partner. “We’ve identified about two dozen countries where we have strong competitive advantages.”
Aldrich associate Ohad Johassi has led the company’s transition since 2016. He will continue as a special board adviser, Baig said.
Lavu remains headquartered in Albuquerque. It’s moving from its offices at 1st Street and Central Avenue into the Plaza Building near Civic Plaza.
It currently employs 172 people, including 108 in Albuquerque and the rest in Miami and India.