Digital menu, ordering and payments scale-up Mr Yum acquires MyGuestlist

Digital menu, ordering and payments scale-up Mr Yum acquires MyGuestlist

Mr Yum co-founder and CEO Kim Teo (centre) with MyGuestlist  co-founders Damian Janeski (left) and Andy Marcus (right).

After giving hospitality venues an easy option for digital menus and payments through its technology, Mr Yum plans to bring a deeper marketing dimension to the service following the acquisition of fellow Melburnian company MyGuestlist for an undisclosed sum.

It is understood the deal was in the "tens of millions" of dollars, following on from $100 million worth of funding rounds in 2021 that drew backing from the likes of Tiger Global, Kogan (ASX: KGN) founder Ruslan Kogan, TEN13, AirTree Ventures, Australian musicians Rüfüs Du Sol, basketball star Patty Mills and many more high-profile investors.

The acquisition includes MyGuestlist's customer relationship management (CRM) platform Sprout, which is used by brands such as Nando’s, Shake Shack and Accor Hotels in thousands of locations across Australia, the UK and the US.

Mr Yum co-founder and CEO Kim Teo says the integration will accelerate the development of sophisticated new products, enabling hospitality operators to deliver bespoke service to their customers.

"Together, we’ll build things that have never been done in hospitality before," Teo says.

"Our venue customers are screaming out for innovative ways to create ongoing, meaningful relationships with their guests, like being able to offer unique discounts or to let them know their favourite item is back on the menu.

"We will make a real difference in the way people experience dining. You’ll walk in the door and the host will know your name, your favourite table to sit at, the pinot noir you enjoy and that you love spicy food."

MyGuestlist’s full-time staff will join Mr Yum at its Collingwood headquarters to create a global team of more than 260 employees.

"This deal is an evolution of a successful partnership between our two companies, with MyGuestlist integrated with Mr Yum in hundreds of shared locations, including Australian Venue Co. venues," says Teo, who co-founded the company with Andrei Miulescu, Kerry Osborn and Adrian Osman.

"We’re thrilled to welcome MyGuestlist into the Mr Yum family. They’ve built a world-class team and technology solution and we’re excited to pour fuel on the fire and dream big with the innovation that’s possible by combining our two offerings."

MyGuestlist co-founder Andy Marcus says the combination will create a global, best-in-class growth platform for hospitality and entertainment venues.

"Together we’ll be able to rapidly scale solutions to provide venues with deeper and more seamless insights into their customers, which will enable them to provide superior and more meaningful hospitality experiences," Marcus explains.

"Integrating our powerful and intuitive CRM into Mr Yum’s industry-leading platform will create elegant, data-driven one-to-one conversations between venues and their guests for the first time. We are incredibly excited about what the future holds for the company."

Australian Venue Co. chief experience officer Marianne Mewett says the merged company will create an even better experience for customers, marketing and in-venue teams across the country.

"Mr Yum is by far the best mobile ordering platform on the market and combining that with MyGuestlist’s smart customer data and marketing automation platform makes this a very powerful combination for venues," says Mewett, whose employer is one of several hospitality industry investors in Mr Yum.

"We are obsessed with understanding our customers and this is really going to accelerate our goals around personalisation and be a formidable tool for our marketing and venue teams."

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