Edinburgh-based, hospitality-focused tech firm ePOS Hybrid ordering further funding round

Edinburgh-based hospitality technology specialist ePOS Hybrid is getting ready to tuck into another round of investor funding and achieve “explosive” international expansion after seeing a surge in demand as it helped firms navigate the Covid-19 pandemic.
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The business – which says it offers fully connected point-of-sale offerings to takeaways, bars, restaurants and other hospitality companies – intends to this year pursue “aggressive” growth into European and global markets, complementing its “extensive” portfolio of clients throughout the UK and Ireland.

The fundraising move comes after it in 2020 raised £363,830 via a crowdfunding campaign, significantly exceeding its £250,000 target.

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The firm currently has operations at two sites in the Scottish capital and one in London, and says its “disruptive” technology can automate a bar or restaurant’s operations, streamline processes, and enhance efficiency for both staff and customers.

From left: founder and CEO Bhas Kalangi and head of growth Andrew Gibbon. Picture: Ian Georgeson.From left: founder and CEO Bhas Kalangi and head of growth Andrew Gibbon. Picture: Ian Georgeson.
From left: founder and CEO Bhas Kalangi and head of growth Andrew Gibbon. Picture: Ian Georgeson.

“Managers can receive in-depth reports and analysis of everything from tracking stock and food waste to reservations and capacity, while fully-branded online ordering platforms and mobile apps can be built and launched by users themselves within minutes,” the tech firm explained.

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Additionally, it said that over the last 18 months it has increased its client portfolio by more than 290 per cent, and in the last year seen product usage grow by 300 per cent as its target market increasingly embraces the digital world.

Founder and chief executive Bhas Kalangi said: “The growth of ePOS Hybrid over the last 18 months can only be described as exponential – and we’re already on target to dwarf this in 2022.

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“Despite the Covid-related challenges many businesses have faced over the last 18 months, demand for our products from customers in the hospitality sector has risen by more than 290 per cent.

“Since 2020, total platform transactions have increased by more than 7,000 per cent, up from around £970,000 to £78 million,” he also said, while in that time more than six million people have used the firm’s products to buy a food or drink item.

“This has [all] been fuelled by increased demand from hospitality operators for transformative technologies which help to streamline their business and to meet head-on the changes in consumer trends and behaviour such as the massive switch to online ordering and home delivery,” he added.

Efficiency

The firm also claims that its most recently launched service features product automation unprecedented in the sector. “Now, instead of customers having to go through a lengthy sales and onboarding process, typically taking weeks, business-owners can buy, onboard and launch any of ePOS Hybrid’s dedicated hospitality products within minutes, directly from their website.”

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Mr Kalangi added: “Our automation will allow us to scale and scale quickly, being able to onboard international customers in volume while not being limited by sales team capacity or complex, multi-touch sales cycles.

“While we automate the SME market and simplify the set-up process for our small, independent customers around the world, our growth teams have greater available resource to better serve multi-location, enterprise clients with more complex requirements.”

The tech firm in April last year published the results of a survey finding that about four in ten consumers in Scotland would be happy for bars, restaurants, pubs and nightclubs to increase their prices if it helped the revival of the industry.

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