Slurp! is a cloud-based POS system that—instead of trying to cater to as many markets as possible—chooses instead to focus on a niche.
So as the name implies, they take a hard stance to the F&B industry. They figure out the pain points in that market, then bake solutions into the core of the system.
Since the F&B industry in Malaysia brings in revenue of US$24 million yearly, they probably are onto something.
The Slurp! ship is commandeered by CEO and co-founder Reza Razali. After a 3-year journey, they’ve secured RM 2.5 million from Axiata Digital Innovation Fund, managed by Intres Capital Partners Sdn. Bhd. after closing a Series A round of funding.
It’s nice to see a homegrown brand like Slurp! gain funding from an equally homegrown Axiata.
“We have been actively generating feedback from our customers and that helped us to turn Slurp! into a specialised POS system that is meant to address many challenges of managing F&B outlets especially on matters such as outlets operations, inventory management, table layout management and staff productivity management.”
“Owners get to monitor their F&B performances remotely and on real-time by using our analytics dashboard. Collectively, these have set us apart from many POS systems in the market,” Reza concluded.
Securing 500 F&B outlets in Malaysia as of August, Slurp! is going to be pushing to at least double that number by the end of the year.
“Grab”bing Some Talent
In a press release, it’s revealed that the startup is also slurping up Shi-Ying Lau, former head of GrabCar Malaysia, as Director of Strategy and Partnerships.
She joins Silentmode Sdn. Bhd. (the company behind Slurp!) bringing in 8 years worth of international experience in consulting and technology.
We may be able to see a new and improved Slurp! soon, especially because Reza disclosed to us that they’re going to use their new capital to expand the team further.
They’re adding more members into sales and tech development, and are even building a whole new unit focused on partnerships.
“We believe that for our POS to succeed, we need to be beyond the point of sales, and that’s why partnerships with people that can assist our merchants better,” said Reza.
Turning RM200k Capital Into A Business Worthy Of A RM2.5 Million Investment
Reza revealed to us that Slurp! wasn’t always about the POS for restaurants.
“We first started the app in 2014 as a way to order food from a restaurant. But we pivoted from there because although the restaurant thing is cool, they wanted a POS instead.”
– Reza Razali
To Slurp!, being F&B focused was also a great way for them to get an in on more areas of that space—table booking, supply ordering, and “whatever F&B-specific requirement or integration with F&B tech that can increase our clients’ revenue”.
In fact, this Software as a Service (SaaS) focus on Slurp! is what drew their investor’s attention to them.
“A lot of other players in the market provide a generic POS. You can use it for retail, serviced business, etc. But when you look at specifics of what generic POS can do, the F&B sets are quite limited and they’re not able to offer much in terms of integration with other services that are F&B related,” said Reza.
“So the investor liked us in the way that we’re a SaaS based business, meaning we have a recurring revenue model. Although there are some other players that have a bigger client-base as a customer, they find our strategy fairly interesting.”
This is definitely a long way from how they started out.
In the beginning, they only had RM200,000 from their parent company, which contributed to cover a lot of the initial development costs.
And now, this POS system is looking to conquer more of the region.
They’ll be using part of the RM2.5 million funding to expand across ASEAN as well, and their first markets are Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. Meanwhile, they already have a presence in Singapore.
They aren’t too hasty to expand too fast though.
“To enter a market, we need to understand the local tech and regulatory requirements. This is especially to get the calculation of the tax on the receipts correct.”
Once they’ve get that right, then they’re good to go.
Feature Image Credit: Slurp!
