Mobile payments company Mr Yum raises record-breaking $89m Series A round led by Tiger Global
Melbourne-founded mobile payments company Mr Yum has raised an $89M AUD Series A round, led by Tiger Global.
This is the largest Australian Series A funding round for a female-led company, and the third-largest Series A in Australian history.
Investors in the round also include Skip Capital (the private fund of Atlassian Co-Founder Scott Farquhar and Kim Jackson), Tennis Australia’s Wildcard Ventures, Broadsheet founder Nick Shelton and Kogan founder Ruslan Kogan. Existing investors TEN13 and AirTree also followed-on in this round, making their largest investments to date into the company.
Other investors in Mr Yum include US-based Australian NBA star Patty Mills of the San Antonio Spurs and Grammy Award winning artists Rüfüs Du Sol.
The Series A follows Mr Yum’s $11 million Post-Seed round in April 2021, bringing the total funding raised by the company to more than$100M.
Founded in November 2018, in just three years Mr Yum has become a global-leading mobile ordering, payments and growth platform with a mission to create the best toolkit for hospitality and entertainment in the world.
This toolkit is more than just QR code ordering, but encompasses a suite of features for operators, including payments, loyalty, marketing and customer insights.
Mr Yum CEO and Co-Founder Kim Teo says the funding round will accelerate the company’s global growth and help cement the post-pandemic recovery and trajectory of the hospitality and entertainment industries around the world.
“We couldn’t be more excited about the new partners that have joined our crusade. This round of capital allows us to triple down on our global lead on product innovation as we grow our teams across Australia, the UK and the US,” she said.
“Restaurants, hospitality and entertainment venues are embracing technology more than ever and our focus is building best-in-class tools to help them grow, in the same way Shopify has for retail.”
Tiger Global partner John Curtius says the company is thrilled to lead the Series A round to support Mr Yum continue scaling globally.
“Tiger Global is heavily invested in restaurant technology around the world. We understand the category and players well and Mr Yum is the clear leader in product innovation for mobile ordering and payments,” he said.
TEN13 managing partner and Mr Yum board member Stew Glynn says Mr Yum provides a solution to the hospitality industry’s core issues around tight margins and rising costs. “We’re excited to back Mr Yum for the third time with our largest cheque to date, showing the conviction that we have behind this team and the magic that they are creating. The co-founders have built a special culture which has enabled them to execute at pace and launch in two major markets in the US and UK with their unique product,” he said.
AirTree partner James Cameron says it’s rare to see consumers adopt a new behaviour as quickly as they have with Mr Yum’s products.
“Their QR codes have now become ubiquitous in Australia, and it’s happened pretty much overnight. They’re now helping hospitality venues all over the country bounce back from a very tough period through COVID, and with this new funding they are able to double down on their international markets, where they are already growing faster than they were in Australia,” he said.
Skip Capital founder Kim Jackson said, “Mr Yum has created an ordering experience that delights diners and restaurants alike. Mr Yum is shaping the future of the hospitality industry and we are very excited to be a part of their journey!”
Mr Yum led the way with web-first mobile ordering and popularised QR codes in a Western dine-in context long before the pandemic ushered in the mainstream adoption of their use.
As a first-mover, Mr Yum has now become the category leader and has been adopted in all types of venues, including casinos, theatres, shopping centres, cinemas, cruise ships and airports as well as restaurants, bars, pubs and cafes.
The company has grown from 12 to more than 120 full-time staff in the past 18 months, with teams in Sydney, Brisbane, London, Los Angeles, the Philippines and the Melbourne headquarters.
Mr Yum was named 4th in LinkedIn Australia’s 2021 Top Startups List, an annual ranking of the best emerging companies to work for.
Mr Yum has more than 1500 venues using the platform globally along with 13 million users.
In its hometown of Melbourne, six in 10 diners have used or heard of Mr Yum and In the past 12 months 44% of Australians have used the platform.
