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Waitrr
Started in 2015 in Singapore by F&B management veterans after frustration with operational issues in restaurants and lack of affordable technology to solve these points. Over the last 2.5 years, Waitrr has created an ecosystem of solutions that solves problems beyond just ordering and payments, and goes into retargeting marketing tools and financing options for F&B outlets.
$X,000,000
Y% undefined $X,000,000
Z
6 years ago
Overview

Quick Pitch

Waitrr is a mobile ordering and payments app for restaurants that allows diners to order and pay on their phones. Diners can order their food while they're still queueing for a table, or simply pre-order their lunch from their offices and collect at a selected time. Waitrr empowers restaurants with unique customer insights based on big data.

Product/Service Details

  • Through automation of menial tasks like order taking and payment processing, Waitrr reduces the need for more manpower at restaurants. This increases the profit margin of restaurants by reducing costs.
  • Waitrr provides a platform for restaurants to communicate directly with their customers through EDMs or push notifications. This is the first tool allowing restaurants to retarget their diners.
  • In partnership with tech platform Loyalty Credit, we're using blockchain technology to create a marketplace to match private investors with restaurants to give them access to a short-term lending facility. Since Waitrr collects the money first from customers, loan repayments can be subtracted before paying out to restaurants. 

Problem/Opportunity

Everyone knows about the inefficiencies that customers experience in the restaurant industry: waiters who take ages to serve customers, errors that mean customers receive the wrong items and delays processing single bills, let alone the challenges splitting bills.

People are less familiar with the challenges on the restaurant side however. There are three main problems in the industry which fall under Operations, Marketing and Financing.

Operations:

The biggest challenge is the shortage of skilled manpower. Hiring staff to meet the operational needs of a restaurant is often an expensive and time-consuming endeavour. Frustratingly, F&B staff often quit after only a few weeks.

Marketing:

At present, restaurants can only try to reach out to potential patrons via very broad targeting options in digital channels like Facebook. They have very little understanding of what drives consumers to visit their outlet and are unable to reach out to specific consumers. In short, the restaurants have no link to their guests.

Financing:

Restaurants don't have easy access to additional capital - they simply cannot get bank loans very easily.

Solution

Unlike costly tablet solutions that require devices on every table, Waitrr runs on the customers’ own phones. A single platform app at 100's of restaurants. Already working with high-volume restaurants, Waitrr flawlessly manages fully-customised menus/orders. With no sign-up cost, restaurants pay as they go. Waitrr's founding team has decades of restaurant management experience. 

How Does It Work/Features

Once a restaurant has signed up with Waitrr and has sent the full menu, Waitrr can on-board them within 24 hours. Once live on the platform, Waitrr users order their food & drinks conveniently through the app, and their orders are sent directly to the restaurant kitchens. Payments are automatically deducted from customers’ credit cards so there is no way for customers to leave without paying (a major problem at busy bars).

 

Revenue Model

Waitrr takes a cut of every transaction that is processed through the Waitrr app. On top of that, restaurants pay Waitrr additional fees to enable loyalty programs and to get access to Waitrr's customer database. Waitrr is the only platform with insights gained from customer transactional data, such as demographics, spending behaviour, food preferences etc.

Traction & Accomplishments

  • Already working with 100+ restaurants.

  • Partnered with hugely popular restaurants like The Daily Cut and Five Tapas Bar to address their queue-time and manpower challenges.

  • Recently partnered with Revel Systems. Not only does this give us access 2,000+ of restaurants, but our users' orders go straight into the restaurants' POS systems.

  • Currently, we have 15,000+ users and will have 93,000+ by the end of 2018.

  • 43,000 menu items sold in 2017

  • S$550,000 GMV in 2017

Use of Funds

The use of funds will mainly go into business development. The plan is to hire 2 more Sales Associates to support the acquisition of 600 new restaurants in 2018. 60% of the funds will go into the team’s salary, including the app development team. The remaining funds will go into aggressive customer acquisition and expansion into other markets, starting with Dubai and Hong Kong within six months.

How We're Different

Unlike our competitors, we are a low-hardware solution with zero up-front cost to restaurants. We capture information about our customers, including their demographics and purchase behaviour. Not only does this enable targeted marketing to restaurant customers, but we can provide insights to restaurant owners for optimising their menus and offers.

Team

  • Tim Wekezer, Founder/CEO
    • INSEAD MBA. 15+ years in F&B management, including pre-opening, daily operations, and handover.
  • Tim Davies, GM
    • Babson College MBA. 6+ years in analysis roles, together with 4+ years in marketing and managing startups
  • Kimberly Cai, Sales Manager
    • Ex Foodpanda Sales veteran. Signs up 20+ restaurants with Waitrr each month.
  • Darryl Er, Operations Lead
    • Murdoch University, BA in Hospitality Management. 3+ years in various F&B startups.
  • Danial Haddad, Ops/Growth Lead
    • Singapore Institute of Tech, BA in Hospitality Management. 3+ years in hospitality operations and sales.
  • Chau Dinh, Tech Lead/Backend
    • 7+ years in project management and software engineering. Skilled at understanding business requirements and delighting users.
  • An Nguyen, iOS Dev
    • 5+ years in mobile app development, specialising in the iOS operating system
  • Toan Truong, Android Dev
    • 4+ years as a team lead and developer specialising in the Android operating system. 

Contact

Tim Wekezer

[email protected]

+65 8698 8741

$Y,000,000
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