Fave, one of Southeast Asia's leading mobile payments and rewards platforms, has announced it has 'acquired' CutQ and FoodTime, two startups specialising in F&B Table Ordering and Takeaway pre-ordering for an undisclosed fee. The acquisition and integration of both CutQ and FoodTime will allow Fave to significantly accelerate its growth in Southeast Asia, positioning itself as the region's one-stop solutions platform for merchants and their customers.
"I'm very pleased to welcome both CutQ and FoodTime into the Fave family," said Joel Neoh, Founder of Fave Group, "As the cost to operate restaurants increases and business owners face challenges to hire staff and increase productivity, we wanted to provide Table Ordering and Take Away pre-ordering solutions which will reduce these hurdles," he added.
"We saw an opportunity to leverage on the knowledge and technology that CutQ in Singapore and FoodTime in Malaysia have developed and are delighted to officially introduce their services as our next value-added service for our merchants and users. At Fave, we believe every business should be able to partake in the digital economy, and no one should be left behind because the cost is too high or the technology is too complex."
"One of the biggest problems facing Singapore's and Malaysia's F&B and retail industry is an acute labour shortage. The lack of skilled labour, coupled with new government restrictions on foreign workers, poses one of the biggest growth challenges for both countries. With Fave, merchants have experienced an impressive 70% increase in loyalty return rates from their customers as compared to the industry average of around 20%. Adding Table Ordering solutions is a step towards addressing what merchants in F&B need." said Ng Aik Phong, Managing Director of Fave Singapore.
Founded in 2013 by entrepreneurs, Kevin Tan and Laura Chong-Tan, CutQ is a Singaporean food
a takeaway app that enables its users to skip queues and have their food ready for pickup.
Across the Causeway, FoodTime is a mobile food ordering and delivery app founded by Ahmad Daleen in 2017. Both teams have a tremendous passion for solving real problems and challenges that merchants and consumers face and they have been pushing the boundaries of technology and innovation while remaining focused on delivering outstanding technology, and service. Fave identified CutQ and FoodTime as winning business models, due to their strong leadership and commitment towards driving F&B business efficiency solutions and excellent customer experiences in Singapore and Malaysia.
Merchants that have signed up on Fave's table ordering solution include well-known brands
such as Gelare, Paulaner Brauhaus, Saboten and Tingkat Peranakan in Singapore and Murni Discovery, Naughty Nuri's, and Home Noodle in Malaysia.
"We have been utilising table ordering since 23 April 2019, and it has been a welcome addition to our business," said Max Ng, General Manager and Operations Manager at Jia Xiang Sarawak Kuching Kolo Mee.
"It helps using cutting down the queues and shortening food waiting time which improves the customer experience. Furthermore, it has increased our sales by turning tables over quickly through the efficient ordering system and has tremendously increased our customers'; spending. Fave's Table ordering is also a great way of upselling!"
Table ordering is powered by FavePay mobile payments which also provides loyalty cashback to
consumers and more returning customers for merchants. This quarter, Favepay transactions crossed the six million mark with the app downloaded over four million times; more than US$6 million worth of cashback issued to Singaporeans and Malaysians. In 2018, Fave raised US$20 million in Series B funding led by investors Sequoia Capital, Venturra Capital and SIG Asia Investment. Fave's focus will be to increase its market share through continued partnerships, expansion of new services, as well as broader and deeper efforts in merchant acquisition.
