Technology

Posted on August 9, 2018 by staff

Food tech firm serves up UK expansion

Technology

Manila-headquartered food tech specialist BigDish is set to be served up across the UK with the nationwide roll-out of its restaurant booking platform.

The company completed a strategic acquisition of Pouncer earlier this month, along with a float on the London stock exchange which saw it raise $2.3m.

It had been working with Pouncer to develop TablePouncer, the company’s mobile app and web-based platform ahead of the acquisition and Pouncer founder Patrick Knight will stay on to lead BigDish’s UK operations.

The platform helped 126,000 restaurant-goers in Bournemouth in 2017 – up nine per cent year-over-year – crowning it the city’s leading yield management and restaurant discovery platform.

Yield management systems offer a dynamic pricing strategy that can charge different prices at different times for the same products. Although not new technology, they have been slow to infiltrate the restaurant business, said BigDish CEO Joost Boer.

BigDish currently operates in the Philippines, Indonesia and Hong Kong but will now look to expand across the UK, starting with a Beta launch in Bath in September.

It will initially focus on regional towns and cities where the restaurant app market is less saturated before rolling out across the country.

“The stage is now set for BigDish to grow within the UK market,” said Boer.

“Since our IPO, UK and Irish restaurants have reached out to BigDish to get involved with the platform. This confirms that the huge potential we see in the UK is shared by others.

“This is an exciting time for the company and I look forward to updating the market with our progress in due course.”