Easy Eat secures US$5 mil in push to expand into SEA

  • Combination of Indian family offices, angels, Silicon Valley VCs
  • 4th quarter push into SEA with Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam & Thailand

 

Easy Eat secures US$5 mil in push to expand into SEAEasy Eat Pte Ltd (Easy Eat AI) today announced that it has secured a funding of US$5 million with the funding to power its expansion deeper into Southeast Asia, beginning in the fourth quarter with Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand earmarked.

The round saw participation from Aroa Ventures – family office of Ritesh Agarwal, the founder and group CEO of OYO, Reddy Futures Family Office, Prophetic Ventures, Maninder Gulati - Global Chief Strategy Officer of OYO, Cem Garih – Managing Partner at Alarko Ventures, Fethi Sabancı Kamışlı – Founder and Managing Partner of Esas Ventures and a few Silicon Valley based VCs and angels.

Founded by Indian nationals Mohd Wassem, Rhythm Gupta and Abdul Khalid, Easy Eat AI is headquartered in Singapore with Malaysia the first country it launched operations, in July 2020. The current funding round follows earlier announced rounds in Sept 2020 and March 2021 but without the amounts raised being disclosed.

Aiming at transforming restaurants into technology companies, Easy Eat AI’s technology solves the biggest of all problems of restaurants which is building the direct connection between the customers and restaurants.

At the heart of its value proposition is an operating system with integrated QR based table ordering, loyalty programs, payment solutions, social media integration, inventory and integrated delivery services. Once a restaurant adopts Easy Eat AI’s technology, the entire operations moves online and just like any other technology company, restaurants are able to capture each and every data point in the value chain which leads to better understanding of customers choices, higher revenue and reduced cost.

"The team is customer obsessed and understands the pain problems of the industry. Their innovative software platform will be disruptive to the entire F&B ecosystem and how customers engage through the F&B lifecycle in the online-to-offline world,” said Keshav Reddy, Managing Partner, Reddy Futures Family Office.

Over the last one year of operations in Malaysia, Easy Eat AI claims it has been able to increase the revenue of restaurants by 30% and reduce operational cost by 15%. It is already serving hundreds of merchants including well known brands like Richiamo Coffee, Mr. Fish Fishhead Noodles, WTF Group and Hailam Toast.

Easy Eat secures US$5 mil in push to expand into SEA“The current pandemic scenario has accelerated the digital transformation of the restaurant industry, with more and more restaurants and customers increasingly wanting contactless services. Easy Eat AI partner restaurants have been able to withstand the impact of Covid-19 better than other restaurants. Even during the worst of the lockdown period, our merchants were generating 50% of the usual revenue,” claimed Wassem (pic, left), the Kuala Lumpur-based CEO of Easy Eat AI.

“The most affected restaurants are those with no clear digital strategy that will continue to struggle even post Covid with limited revenue generating opportunities, escalating cost of operations and they would continue to rely on third party platforms for deliveries paying 30%-35% commission,” adds Wassem.

A customer of Easy Eat, Muhamad Zamry, Managing Director of Richiamo Coffee chain, attests to the value of easy Eat’s software. “We serve more than 10,000 customers every day across our 50 plus outlets, but technology is not our strongest suit. The only threat we face from the global coffee chains is their ability to process data and generate insights using advanced technologies. Deploying Easy Eat AI’s technology puts us at par with the best of the coffee chains in the world,” he says.

 
 
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