The online ordering platform plans to reach new clients in hospitality with investment in R&D.
Flipdish is Ireland’s newest unicorn, reaching a $1.25bn valuation following about $100m in investment led by Tencent.
As a result of this investment, Flipdish intends to hire 700 people this year. Around a third of these jobs will be in Ireland, the company told SiliconRepublic.com, with the rest being based abroad.
The majority of the jobs will be in technology as the company seeks software architects, data scientists, engineers and product designers to join the team. There will also be a number of commercial roles available.
Headquartered in Dublin, Flipdish has offices across Europe and North America. It currently has a variety of roles across a number of locations advertised on its website, in addition to remote roles.
As well as driving international expansion, the latest investment will be used to fund R&D at Flipdish.
The company, which provides restaurants and takeaways with online ordering systems, is interested in finding new clients among cinemas, stadiums and airports.
Co-founder and CEO Conor McCarthy attributed the company’s most recent success to the digital adoption driven by Covid-19 public health restrictions.
“The ongoing pandemic has further accelerated the trend with hospitality businesses becoming increasingly dependent on digital experiences to attract and retain customers,” he said. “Our investment will help us to empower more hospitality businesses around the world to grow with the best-in-class technology.”
McCarthy founded Flipdish with his brother James in 2015. The platform provides digital technologies for hospitality services including online ordering for collection and delivery, on-premise QR code ordering, self-service kiosks, customer loyalty schemes and digital marketing.
The company’s unicorn status comes a year after it secured a $48.5m investment from Tiger Global Management. Other existing investors include Global Founders Capital, Elkstone, Enterprise Ireland and Growing Capital.
Flipdish’s newest investor, Tencent, is headquartered in China. Best known as a multinational entertainment conglomerate and one of the largest gaming companies in the world, Tencent owns WeChat and Riot Games and has made more than 600 investments in companies including Epic Games and Tesla.
“If you want to see the future of digital customer experience and food delivery, look to China,” said McCarthy. “Tencent is our ideal partner with its track record of supporting food delivery companies. Armed with Tencent’s insight and experience, Flipdish will be supercharged in 2022.”
Flipdish currently operates in 25 countries. It was recently recognised as one of Europe’s hottest scale-ups.
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