me&u Launches Its Ordering Platform Around the World With NetSuite
me&u is an Australian technology startup whose food ordering and payments platform is helping to revolutionise the hospitality industry. Using near-field communication technology, me&u’s beacon (a small device that sits on tables in bars and restaurants) allows restaurant patrons to view menus on their phones via a quick tap or scanning a QR code. They can then order and pay for food and drinks without needing a waiter or having to leave their seats.
With technology that gives bars and restaurants highly-customisable digital menus, and new ways to use customer data, me&u has grown rapidly since it was founded in 2018. The pandemic has also showcased other benefits of me&u, like reducing bar queues and putting an end to shared menus. “Our mission is to transform the world of hospitality through a smarter menu," said Asheesh Chacko, COO at me&u. “Firstly, we visualise the menu, then we have dynamic pricing that can change at different times or days, and we're moving to a smart menu, where customers will be shown more of the food or drink items that they like.”
In 2021, me&u has grown from 40 employees to 110, and it’s looking to double in size again over the next 12 months. “This time last year we had about 50 venues on the platform, and we’re at around 850 now,” Chacko said. me&u was started by serial entrepreneur Stevan Premutico, and the business has already secured $8m AUD of outside investment.
Cross-Border Control
As the Australian business took off, Chacko and his team realised there was a big opportunity to take the platform into new markets around the world. me&u set its sights on New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S., with all three countries having a comparable bar culture to Australia. However, with international borders closed due to COVID-19, me&u was forced to do everything virtually. “Normally you'd fly in, interview people, appoint someone, and then you wouldn't leave for a couple of weeks,” he said. “As that wasn’t going to happen, both the U.K. and the U.S. expansions have been done without setting foot in either country.”
Despite the challenges, me&u set up subsidiaries, worked out the legal and taxation requirements of each jurisdiction, and hired full-time staff in all three countries. The U.K. operation went live in June 2021, and already has 150 venues on the platform. New Zealand and the U.S will launch later this year.
Without being on the ground in each country to put processes in place and fix problems in person, me&u had to rely on its technology. “We couldn’t have done it without NetSuite, because you’re not able to scale sustainably without having proper infrastructure and visibility into your operations,” Chacko said. “NetSuite lets us know what's happening on the ground; otherwise, we’d have no control or we’d simply spend too much time trying to gain control.”
Serving Up Unified Technology
When me&u started out in 2018 it ran on Xero, but as the number of transactions on the platform increased, Chacko realised it needed a more powerful solution. "The unique part about our business is we process very large volumes of transactions," Chacko said. "For example, if we have $10 million as our revenue, we'll have thirty times that going through as customer revenue."
The business needed visibility and control over every cent flowing through its business each month, to ensure it paid venues on time and maintained its reputation. "Initially, it was all on a spreadsheet, and someone was manually inputting the payment transactions into the bank file," he said. "But as we went from 30 to 700 venues on the platform, that just wasn’t sustainable."
So, in 2019, me&u switched to NetSuite with the help of Jcurve*, a partner, to replace the patchwork of systems and applications it had adopted to cope with its growth. "We had Xero, and then Spotlight for the consolidation piece," Chacko said. "Then we used an app for forecasting and mapping, another one for payroll, Expensify for expense claims, and we supplemented everything with a lot of Excel." After the switch, me&u experienced benefits immediately, “Consolidation takes two days instead of five,” he said. “Once we ditched the Excel calculations, we saved four hours a day of someone’s time, so then NetSuite basically paid for itself.”
Supersize me&u
After successfully growing the Australian business, me&u upgraded to NetSuite OneWorld in April 2021 to support its global expansion. “Having multiple jurisdictions and currencies makes consolidation more complex,” Chacko said. “I've tried to do consolidation through add-on packages before but you're just delaying the inevitable, so we committed to implementing NetSuite OneWorld”.
Now operating five entities in four countries and four currencies, everything looks to be in place for me&u to continue on its incredible growth trajectory. But whatever the future holds, 2021 has proven that with the right technology, business processes and leadership, its journey to success may not necessarily require leaving the country.
*Jcurve is a leading NetSuite partner that specialises in helping ambitious companies implement technology that supports rapid business growth.
