Mr Yum loads up with $89 million Series A backed by Tiger Global, Ruslan Kogan and more

Melbourne-based QR code menu platform Mr Yum has today announced it raised $89 million in its Series A round led by US investment firm Tiger Global.

It follows an $11 million post-seed round in April 2021, bringing the total funding raised by Mr Yum to more than $100 million.

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.

In 2018 Andrei Miulescu, Kim Teo, Kerry Osborn and Adrian Osman founded Mr Yum to give restaurants, bars and hotels the chance to improve customer convenience and spend through QR code ordering, along with delivery and pick-up options.

Teo says the 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 says.

“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,” Curtis says.

Mr Yum led the way with web-first mobile ordering and popularised QR codes in a dine-in context long before the pandemic ushered in the mainstream adoption of their use.

As a first-mover, Mr Yum is now a 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.

More than 1,500 venues use the platform globally, and back home Mr Yum says 44 per cent of Australians have now used the technology.