Image credits: Flipdish
Flipdish, a Dublin-based digital food-ordering platform, announced that it has raised $100M (approx €69.8M) from Chinese conglomerate Tencent at a valuation of over $1.25B (approx €1.08B), thereby attaining the status of a unicorn.
The funding announcement comes a year after raising $48.5M (approx €42.2M) from Tiger Global Management in February 2021.
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Fund utilisation
The investment will enable the company to grow global operations, fund R&D, and hire around 700 people in 2022. The majority of the hiring will be in technology roles such as software architects, data scientists, engineers, and product designers.
Conor McCarthy, Co-Founder and CEO of Flipdish, says, “Digitisation has been transforming the hospitality sector for years. The ongoing pandemic has further accelerated the trend with hospitality businesses becoming increasingly dependent on digital experiences to attract and retain customers. Our investment will help us to empower more hospitality businesses around the world to grow with the best-in-class technology.”
McCarthy further says, “Tencent is our ideal partner with its track record of supporting food delivery companies. Armed with Tencent’s insight and experience, Flipdish will be supercharged in 2022.”
Flipdish: What you need to know
Founded by brothers Conor and James McCarthy in 2015, Flipdish provides software for creating food ordering apps.
The company provides technology that powers QR code order and pay at the table, online ordering for pick-up and delivery, self-service kiosks, customer loyalty programmes, and digital marketing.
The platform allows users to order directly from the restaurant through a ‘white label’ app enabling owners to take control of consumer digital experience and business growth.
The company charges a 7 per cent fee per order compared to 30 per cent from others like Deliveroo.
Operates in 25 countries
At present, Flipdish operates in 25 countries including the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom with thousands of independent restaurant customers as well as major brands such as All Day Kitchens and Popchew.
The Irish company also works with some of the world’s largest ghost kitchen companies, which partner with the likes of TGI Friday’s, White Castle, Dickey’s BBQ Pit, and many more.
Flipdish has seen rapid revenue growth across multiple markets in 2021, fueled by restaurant operators bringing their online ordering capability in-house rather than relying on food delivery marketplaces like UberEats & Doordash.
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