SINGAPORE – Local crowdfunding platform FundedHere has raised a significant amount of capital for homegrown Waitrr – a first-of-its-kind ‘mobile waiter’ app which automates food orders to eliminate users’ wait times when dining in restaurants or ordering takeaway food – in an oversubscribed 30-day campaign that surpassed its initial target.
Waitrr’s campaign was funded by 12 registered FundedHere investors including reputable Singaporean investors Andy Lim, Founder and Chairman of private equity firm Tembusu Partners, and Steve Kek, CEO of OMG Venture. It is FundedHere’s third oversubscribed campaign in recent months, following the platform’s raise of S$516,000 for medtech start-up AEvice Health and S$300,000 for clean tech start-up EcoWorth Tech end-2017.
Waitrr speeds up services in restaurants across Singapore by letting diners order food and make instant payments on their smartphone devices. The app contains the full menu of its onboarded restaurants and orders on the app go directly to the kitchen. Staff can focus on preparing and serving dishes to customers instead of taking orders and fetching bills, effectively reducing manual error and slashing processing times. Waitrr also offers a takeaway option for many restaurants – a favourite feature particularly during lunch peaks. Users order and pay for their desired meal whilst still in the office and just pick it up by the time they reach their desired restaurant without the need to queue.
The app was conceptualised by Tim Wekezer for the 2015 INSEAD Venture Competition, where it won first place. It was registered as a company that same year and has since experienced consistent growth. It now boasts a user base of 15,000 customers and 110 restaurants.
Commenting on the campaign, Mr. Wekezer, Founder and CEO of Waitrr, said: “We are thankful for the enthusiasm and support of the community at FundedHere, which both validates our business model and proves that we are on the right track with our product. We will put these investments to good use in our journey to improve restaurant service and create seamless dining experiences for all.”
Waitrr will use the funds from the campaign to ramp up end-user acquisition and promotions, develop new features and expand its business beyond Singapore. The company’s future plans include leveraging synergies with sectors such as food delivery, e-payments, marketing, tourism and hospitality. Waitrr aims to become Asia’s leading F&B mobile payments processor, as well as the industry’s preferred point of reference for consumer data.
Mr. Daniel Lin, Co-Founder and Executive Director of FundedHere, said: “Our team’s mission is to provide investors in Singapore with opportunities to grow disruptive start-ups in need of alternative funding. We are pleased to have provided Waitrr a platform to reach out to the investor community and very much look forward to its next chapter of growth.”
Launched in March 2015, FundedHere is Singapore’s first equity and debt-based crowdfunding platform. It obtained its Capital Market Services License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore in March 2016. Including Waitrr, it has helped 19 companies raise S$8.1 million in funding to date.
About Waitrr
Waitrr is a mobile ordering and payments solution that aims to create a seamless dining experience for our users and restaurant partners. Users can choose from a variety of over 110 F&B outlets across Singapore and order dine-in or takeaway food. Waitrr enables users to select, order and pay for their food in one go. For more information, visit: https://waitrr.com
About FundedHere
Launched in March 2015, FundedHere is a Singapore-headquartered equity- and lending- based crowdfunding platform targeting startups in Southeast Asia. In March 2016, it obtained its Capital Market Services License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, permitting it to issue shares. To date, FundedHere has raised over S$8 million through 19 campaigns. For more information, visit: www.fundedhere.com
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