Hospitality tech firm secures millions to grow

AUCKLAND: Melbourne hospitality tech firm Mr Yum has raised $A11 million ($NZ11.8 million) to expand its QR code ordering technology throughout New Zealand, America and the United Kingdom.

The business, which has been operating both a pickup and delivery service in addition to its primary smart menu technology in New Zealand since early last year, earlier closed a $A1.5 million seed funding round in 2019.

The latest major investment was led by Brisbane venture firm Ten13 and AirTree Ventures.

Other investors in the tech and hospitality industries, along with Australian NBA player Patty Mills of the San Antonio Spurs and Shark Tank’s Andrew Banks, also invested in the firm.

Mr Yum cofounder and chief executive Kim Teo said the $A11 million capital would be spent on developing its product and on global expansion.

The Australian startup already has small teams in the United States and the UK, and in the past 12 months the value of its transactions has increased 27fold.

Mr Yum started out at the end of 2018 as a provider of digital menus for cafes and restaurants, enabling diners to scan a QR code to order meals and drinks from their phones, without having to download an app, back when QR codes were ‘‘considered dead’’, Ms Teo said.

It was solely focused on dinein product before the onset of the Covid19 pandemic, but adapted to offer pickup and delivery when lockdowns hit and the company’s revenue, like its hospitality firm clients’, plummeted.

Since then, QR codes had become mainstream and the technology was enabling greater convenience within the hospitality sector, Ms Teo said.