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Hey You founder back with B2B food-ordering start-up

Yolanda Redrup
Yolanda RedrupRich List co-editor

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The co-founder of popular mobile ordering and payments app Hey You, Adam Theobald, has banked fresh funding for his latest venture, Ordermentum, which is growing rapidly in the business-to-business food services industry.

Ordermentum CEO Adam Theobald is making it easier for hospitality venues and suppliers to transact.  Janie Barrett

The company, which launched in mid 2015, has amassed more than 25,000 hospitality venues on its wholesale food and beverage order management system, and has now banked a $5 million capital raising, led by Pure Asset Management.

Speaking to The Australian Financial Review, Mr Theobald said the raising came after the business was forced to abandon a $10 million round, which had been poised to close just as COVID-19 hit.

“I think I have post-traumatic stress disorder talking about it. It was incredibly stressful ... we had five really strong leads ... but as fate had it, the term sheets were due the day the stock market dropped 20 per cent going into COVID,” he said.

“It was unrealistic to raise capital with that sheer amount of uncertainty. The commentary was all doom and gloom.

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“But the lockdowns were less restrictive than we’d expected and while volumes dropped to 50 per cent for the first three weeks, after that they marched back up to 80 per cent and that was advanced on where we thought we’d be.”

This stronger than expected recovery in 2020 meant the company was able to bring on new customers last year and by September, volumes had recovered to March levels.

Throughout the pandemic, the company stayed in touch with the investors it had been engaging with before the sharemarket sell-off in March, and its resilience convinced Pure Asset Management about investing.

New services

”The strength of the company’s network effect, no more apparent than when marketing ceased during lockdown, was nothing short of compelling. We’re excited about the prospects for Ordermentum and feel privileged to be funding such a great Australian company,” Pure Asset Management principal Nick Berry said.

Mr Theobald said the capital would allow it to invest in new services for its network of suppliers and hospitality businesses, as well as recruiting talent. The business has recently added Prospa chief product officer Damon Pezaro to its board, which is headed by Nudie co-founder and former Ten Network chairman David Gordon.

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“The digitisation theme has never been stronger than in payments. One of the things we saw in COVID was that suppliers were focused on how they collect money, while venues were focused on watching what they spent and how they spend it,” Mr Theobald said.

“We’re making a concerted effort to help other sides drive the digital adoption of payments.”

Ordermentum has 25,000 venues on the platform and 450 suppliers. The company tracks gross merchandise value as its key growth metric and has surpassed $600 million in GMV. The latest capital raising is projected to help it break even.

Mr Theobald started the company alongside the former managing director of Toby’s Estate Coffee, Andrew Low, whom he had originally pitched to win as a customer.

Between his connections from starting Hey You and Mr Low’s industry experience, Mr Theobald said the pair had a head start in getting Ordermentum off the ground.

”They’re both great and have been enjoyable experiences ... but the difference with Ordermentum is it’s a much bigger network,” he said. “There’s a lot of friction in how venues take on a new supplier and we want to streamline that. We want to be the way venues find, select, order and pay [for goods].

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As well as heading the board, Mr Gordon is an investor in the business, as is beverage giant Lion, which was one of Ordermentum’s first 10 customers.

Lion Australia managing director James Brindley, who is also on the Ordermentum board, said it used the company predominantly within its Malt Shovel wholesale business.

“Ordermentum’s intuitive and simple customer interface and experience aligns nicely to Malt Shovel’s objective of being really easy to do business with,” he said.

“The platform allows us to have customers set up and ordering from Malt Shovel via credit card within a matter of hours rather than days.”

Yolanda Redrup is the co-editor of the AFR Rich List. She previously reported on technology, healthcare and Street Talk. Connect with Yolanda on Twitter. Email Yolanda at yolanda.redrup@afr.com

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