Oli Cavanagh and Charles Dowd. Image: Strike
New Irish fintech player Strike is rolling out tech to enable cashless, contactless tipping for customers.
Having already announced plans to invest €10m in a new “technology-centric strategy” this year, Camile Thai Kitchen is now partnering with Dublin tech company Strike to enable contactless tipping.
Formed in 2020, Strike is a fintech company offering payment technology that is designed to make tipping easy without a terminal or a new app on customers’ phones. It was founded by Oli Cavanagh, who previously co-founded peer-to-peer lender Flender, and Charles Dowd, who co-founded Irish payments company Plynk.
The idea is that customers can tap their phone off a Strike tag or scan a QR code on their receipt, which will allow them to tip delivery drivers directly with Apple Pay or Google Pay.
Covid-19 restrictions have led to a massive shift in how restaurants and food outlets operate, particularly when it comes to the adoption of technology.
Many businesses have had to pivot to delivery and takeaway services in order to survive. In a recent survey carried out by Flipdish, 57pc of restaurants indicated that they wouldn’t have survived the pandemic restrictions without offering delivery or takeaway services.
Camile Thai Kitchen’s founder, Brody Sweeney, said Covid-19 has altered the nature of tipping dramatically, with both customers and delivery drivers nervous about handling cash.
“Customers like to give recognition. Before the pandemic, a lot of orders were cash and our customers tipped our drivers directly in cash,” he said.
“We are extremely proud to partner with an Irish start-up like Strike who helped us to devise a frictionless digital tipping solution for our guests and our delivery team. The system has been tested successfully by our branches in Dublin and will be rolled out across all our Camile branches in Ireland over the next few weeks.”
Strike co-founder Cavanagh said drivers are seeing nearly double the volume of tips since the digital platform was enabled.
“With our solution for Camile we also noticed that customers often tip hours after the delivery, even on the following day. This was a nice surprise. Drivers often don’t even realise they were tipped until they check their Strike account,” he said.
Camile Thai has already partnered with Irish drone business Manna, trialling drone deliveries in the Galway town of Oranmore earlier this year. As well as investing in drone deliveries, the company also plans to automate its kitchen operations with robotics in 2021.
