FoodByUs unveils no-fee instant finance product
Summary
In a bid to alleviate cash flow strain for small hospitality operators and to assist suppliers who are increasingly acting like banks burdened with chasing payments, wholesale food and alcohol ordering marketplace platform FoodByUs has today launched a new seamless trade finance product for the industry. Further, FoodByUs says it will take full responsibility for instant supplier payments regardless of whether a venue ends up paying its bills or not, giving wholesalers confidence to use the platform too. FoodByUs, founded in 2016 by Tim Chandler, Gary Munitz and Ben Lipschitz, hopes the financial product will be a ‘game changer’ for the more than 80,000 independently owned and run restaurants and cafes across Australia. “This is incredibly cumbersome for venues who need to fill out and manage multiple credit applications and limits, while suppliers themselves are acting like ‘banks’ and are burdened with having to chase payments as well as being exposed to the possibility of not getting paid at all," says the co-founder, one of Australias Top 50 Young Entrepreneurs. A typical ‘credit application-to-ordering’ period can be over 4 weeks when a restaurant wishes to engage a new supplier - with FoodByUs it is 90 seconds.” On board with the new tech is payments platform provider Shift, which closed a $27 million Series C funding round led by Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia in February.