Tue 10th Jan 2017 - Private equity firm leads £2.7m investment in QikServe Private equity firm leads £2.7m investment in QikServe: Private equity firm Maven Capital Partners has led a £2.7m (US$3.4m) investment in QikServe, which has developed a patented business-to-business cloud-based platform aimed at hospitality operators, enabling customers to order and pay for items from a smartphone, tablet or self-service terminal. Founded in 2011 by entrepreneurs Daniel Rodgers and Ronnie Forbes, QikServe’s software has undergone a number of years of investment and development and more recently successful pilot schemes have led to contracts secured with a number of global hospitality businesses. The funding, which includes a £2m investment from Maven, alongside £700,000 of additional backing from existing investors, Par Equity, Equity Gap and Scottish Enterprise, will support the global roll-out of QikServe’s innovative platform, including major expansion into the United States, growing the firm’s workforce in key areas, and supporting channel partners. QikServe’s platform enables customers to discover restaurants, check-in to tables, browse menus, place orders, save and redeem loyalty points or vouchers, and pay their bill directly from their mobile phone or tablet. The platform targets the increasing consumer adoption of mobile solutions and also brings significant advantages to restaurants by improving efficiencies, reducing labour costs, and increasing average spend; QikServe’s pilot schemes have seen an uplift in spend per head of between 50% and 73%. Edinburgh-based QikServe is fully integrated with EPOS provider, Oracle Hospitality, and provides QikServe with access to over 330,000 accounts across 180 countries. Its software offers Oracle’s multi-site operators a quick and cost-effective solution for deploying a self-service model across large estates. The technology can be seamlessly built into existing back-end systems, with the platform able to be configured remotely with no additional hardware or software required in the premises. Daniel Rodgers, chief executive at QikServe, said: “A dramatic global shift in hospitality economics is resulting in increased uptake of digital self-service technology. Mobile ordering and payments are now pressing concerns for businesses across the global hospitality sector as they seek to improve service, reduce costs and meet the expectations of the modern consumer. We are already working closely with billion-dollar hospitality companies and this funding, combined with our Oracle integration, will accelerate our global footprint, strengthening our position at the forefront of enterprise solutions for hospitality. We are delighted to welcome Maven to the QikServe team and look forward to working with them to help transform hospitality for today’s digital society.” David Milroy, investment director at Maven, added: “We are looking forward to working with Dan, Ronnie and the team. We have been hugely impressed by the functionality and capability of the QikServe platform and believe that the technology offers a differentiated service to hospitality clients who are keen to realise the potential self-service offers in terms of increasing order value and reducing costs. The hospitality market needs to adapt in the same way that the wider retail market has responded to evolving consumer habits. With millennials in particular demanding mobile solutions there is a clear need for the hospitality sector to embrace technology. The hard work and efforts of the QikServe team over a number of years have put them at the leading edge of their market and once again it is great to see another exciting technology business originating out of Edinburgh which is capable of satisfying a global market.” The investment in QikServe represents Maven’s sixth Venture Capital Trust transaction and in total its 12th Private Equity investment in the past year.