FoodByUs Raises $10 Million To Fuel Hotel Supply Business

FoodByUs, a Sydney-based online marketplace, has announced a $10 million Series A fundraising round as part of its efforts to level the procurement playing field for thousands of Australian independent hospitality establishments. FoodByUs, a hospitality platform that connects restaurants, cafes, and caterers with hundreds of wholesale food providers, has increased its yearly revenues by more than 600% since 2019, with more than 1,000 locations on board.

However, co-founder Ben Lipschitz points out that there is still a significant addressable market of 90,000 independent venues nationally, as well as a ‘$20 billion potential’.

“If you remove Mc’ Ds, KFC, and any huge chain, independent food expenditure is $20 billion, and we truly want to be the dominating force there,” says Lipschitz, who previously created and sold multinational foldable footwear firm Flipsters.

Lipschitz co-founded FoodByUs with Menulog co-founders Tim Chandler and Gary Munitz after meeting at a data analytics firm where they worked before launching FoodByUs in 2016.

“FoodByUs was founded on the notion of enhancing the frequently ignored ‘back of house’ function inside hospitality facilities”, explains Lipschitz, a finalist in the forthcoming Sydney Young Entrepreneur Awards.

It is a business strategy that has seen the company’s workforce grow from 38 to 55 individuals throughout the epidemic, with plans to add another 10 by the end of this year.

The funds received will help FoodByUs continues its incredible development and mission to become vital piece of technology for every independent hospitality business, alongside other critical tools such as point of sale, rostering, accounting, and more. The platform now supports best-in class search, digital issue resolution, one tap comparison, and purchase, as well as automatically pushing all invoices into Xerox.

Despite substantial national expansion, the majority of the company’s revenue remain in Sydney. According to Lipschitz, the Melbourne market currently accounts for around one-fifth of the company’s sales while a more recent expansion into Southeast Queensland accounts for just about 5%.