Papaya, a Thailand-based omni-channel ordering and payments platform for restaurants, bars, and hotels, announces that it has successfully secured funding. This investment round, led by leading venture capital firm BEENEXT, alongside A2D Ventures, is to fuel Papaya’s growth and expansion. Papaya was previously funded by Global Founders Capital and The MBA Fund. This new round’s success marks a significant milestone for Papaya and its founders.

Papaya was founded in mid-2022 by Kush Sodhia, Haakon Brekke, and Julian Timings. Kush and Haakon bring their industry expertise from working together at Boston Consulting Group Bangkok on consumer and food retail projects across Southeast Asia along with Haakon’s previous work with Zalora. Julian brings a wealth of technical expertise having previously founded food startup Polpa in Thailand which was acquired by Pop Meals. 

“Hospitality was one of the hardest hit industries during COVID and recovery has been slow. Sales are only now starting to hit pre-COVID levels and there is still a 35% shortage of staff across the industry in SEA. The industry has also lagged when it comes to understanding customers in a data-driven way.” said Kush Sodhia, CEO of Papaya. “We founded Papaya to help operators use technology to solve these problems and are excited to have BEENEXT and A2D Ventures as new partners on this journey”

Papaya’s ordering and payments platform allows hospitality (restaurants, bars, hotels) operators to grow sales on average by 20% while reducing staff work by up to 30%, all while learning more about their customer base. The digital ordering and payments platform ensures customers can dine at the pace they want rather than relying on the availability of staff. As they use their phones to order, pay, and create accounts, Papaya can provide unprecedented customer-level insights back to the merchants to enhance the overall customer experience. 

In an industry where operators are used to suffering high upfront adoption costs with new POS systems (much of which is due to hardware investment), Papaya turns this norm on its head with a completely web-based and cloud-based solution that can work on any existing hardware. “It’s 2024, operators shouldn’t be forced down a niche hardware route, they should be able to access their operation and their data live on their tablet in their restaurant, laptop in their home, or phone on the go”, says Haakon Brekke, COO of Papaya.

Since its launch, Papaya has gained popularity among a number of cafes and restaurants across Thailand including Tim Hortons, Bartels, Fatboy Izakaya, The Commons, Vistro, Okasan, and many others. With the new capital, Papaya plans to expand its operations to Singapore, enhance its integrated technology infrastructure, and invest in marketing efforts to grow its merchant base.

“Papaya has a unique vision for the future of dine-in experiences,” said Ankit Upadhyay, General Partner at A2D Ventures. “We are impressed with their innovative approach combining fintech, data analytics, and POS solutions at low costs to their customers, backed by a strong team that’s passionate about solving problems for the F&B retail sector. We are excited to support Papaya as they continue to grow and redefine dining–experiences across Thailand & beyond.”

For more information about Papaya, visit: https://www.papaya.co.th/

About Papaya

Papaya is an omni-channel ordering and payment platform for hospitality operators to scale their businesses. Papaya provides the best digital ordering and payment customer experience across dine-in, takeaway, and delivery channels while providing an unmatched value proposition to the merchant. Customers dine at their own pace without having to rely on the availability of staff. Merchants turn more tables, enjoy higher basket sizes, need less staff training, and have more time to focus on true service instead of admin work. On top of that, Papaya provides unprecedented customer-level insights (live view of repeat customers, repeat order rates, etc.) that until now have been unattainable.

About BEENEXT

BEENEXT is a Venture Capital fund managed by serial entrepreneurs that focuses on assisting founders with their operational experience, network, trust, unique perspectives, and capital. Its vision is to support founders to build legendary long-lasting companies. And its mission is to be the most trusted founder-centric partner. BEENEXT aims to establish a platform of founders, by the founders, and for the founders across the globe, primarily in India, Southeast Asia, and Japan. Since its establishment in 2015, the team has invested in over 300 companies globally.

For more information, please visit: www.beenext.com

About A2D Ventures

A2D Ventures is Southeast Asia’s prominent early-stage venture capital firm, syndicate, and investing platform. The firm invests in innovative and impactful companies across various sectors, with a focus on supporting entrepreneurs who are building the future of Southeast Asia.

For more information, please visit: www.a2dventures.com

This press release has also been published on VRITIMES