The two leading sales and marketing tools for hospitality brands, Mr Yum and me&u, have completed a merger to become the global leader in their category.
The combined company, which processes over $2B in dining transactions per year, will be led by Mr Yum co-founder Kim Teo as the new chief executive.
The merged business will operate under the me&u name, with a fresh visual identity that pays homage to the best of both brands. The new brand icon represents togetherness and perfect pairings – technology & humanity, server & customer, restaurants & community.
me&u is engineered to help restaurants serve up memorable guest experiences and grow their brand so they can make every guest feel like a local. This means deeper and more flexible ordering capability, including a staff app for upselling, proprietary CRM, email & SMS marketing tools, loyalty, guest feedback, and lots more.
The deal ends a four-year rivalry between the companies, which started on their home turf in Australia and has continued across the US and UK in the past two years.
Teo said that the merger is the epitome of a “better together” situation.
“It makes a lot of sense from a business point of view to stop butting heads and start working together. But it makes even more sense from a customer perspective because we have the opportunity to build a best-of-the-best product that venues and their guests love.”
The two companies started courting each other at the start of the year, but the seed for the merger was planted in mid-2022 when Stevan Premutico, me&u’s founder, and Mr Yum co-founder, Adrian Osman, met for a few beers in Austin, USA.
“It was a bit like a first date. I walked out of that thinking he’s a good guy, and we are fighting the same fight,” Premutico said.
“At the end of a couple of beers, I picked up the bill – so he owes me a round – I wrote a little note on the back of a receipt, as I gave it to him, and it said: ‘Let’s make this industry better’.”
The merger is a win for the 6000+ food brands already working with Mr Yum and me&u. It will mean more value for customers, support coverage and innovative power.
The merged business won’t make any significant changes this year as its customers move into the busiest time of the trade.
“Now that the merger is complete and our teams have come together, we’re laser-focused on making sure this is a successful holiday season for our customers and that we look after them,” Teo said.
