From left: Flipdish co-founders Conor and James McCarthy. Image: © Conor McCabe Photography
The Irish food-ordering start-up received investment from Tiger Global, which has previously backed Facebook, Airbnb and Stripe.
In December last year, Irish start-up Flipdish announced 300 new roles in response to the uptick in food ordering during the pandemic.
Now, the food-ordering platform has received €40m in funding from investment firm Tiger Global Management.
Brothers Conor and James McCarthy founded the company in 2015 to help independent eateries take control of their digital business. A major driver behind Flipdish’s growth is restaurant owners bringing their online ordering capability in-house, rather than relying on delivery players such as Just Eat and Deliveroo.
Flipdish now operates in 15 countries including Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, UK and US. It provides its technology to thousands of independent restaurants as well as brands such as Yamamori, Wowburger, Romayo’s, Dunnes Stores and Eddie Rockets.
Conor McCarthy said the pandemic has shown how critical it is for restaurants to build direct digital relationships with customers.
“Many are fed up of competing with the food delivery marketplaces for that customer relationship, drivers and real estate and worry that they are planning to siphon away their customers by building a network of competing brands and virtual restaurants in their local area.”
He added that the pandemic has also shown that restaurants and takeaways are not the only businesses that could deliver food. “Cinemas, stadia and airports are just a few examples of places that will be deploying our technology to keep consumers well-fed and safe.”
In an interview with Siliconrepublic.com last year, McCarthy said it was hard to get customers to believe in Flipdish at the beginning of its journey. “We were unproven and therefore a risky choice in their eyes, but we were very confident that our product and approach would deliver significant ROI,” he said.
In 2019, the company expanded its product offering to include self-service kiosks and in June 2020 it rolled out a table ordering system for restaurants while they were permitted to open.
The €40m investment from Tiger Global will now enable Flipdish to expand globally and attract new customers.
The investment firm focuses on global internet, software, consumer tech and fintech companies. Its previous early-stage investments include Facebook, LinkedIn, Uber, Airbnb, Stripe and Flipkart.
John Curtius, partner at Tiger Global, said Flipdish is “the European leader in the restaurant tech market”.
“The investment fits our strategy of investing in high-quality companies that are benefiting from powerful secular growth trends and are led by excellent management teams,” he said.
