An inside take on Mr Yum's US$65M / AU$89M Series A

Today, we announced our US$65M (AU$89M/￡48M) Series A investment round.?

It is the 3rd largest Series A for an Aussie company and the largest for a female-led Aussie company. This is an emotional one!

There will be a bunch of articles published about our plans for the next stage of growth so I thought I’d take the opportunity to share more openly about the cap raise, our investors, and say a few personal thank yous.?

An emotional rollercoaster

A successful cap raise is the result of delirious, unwavering belief, a ton of hard work and a quality seat belt so you don’t fall off the rollercoaster. As prepared as we were - with awesome advice and introductions from TEN3 and Airtree - it was still a testing and emotional process.

This was the first time Adrian & I had run a full-fledged capital raise process as all our previous rounds were organic and inbound. When we kicked it off, our two biggest Australian markets, Melbourne & Sydney, were completely in lockdown so our actual revenue numbers were well down compared to our previous round. That’s not the best starting point - ideally the graph is this pretty thing that goes up and to the right - but we knew our business fundamentals were super strong and believed that the right investors would look at the long term opportunity in what we’re building.

Throughout the process, we met so many amazing people and ended up having a blast, doing 100+ Zoom calls as well as investor meetings in Los Angeles, San Fran, New York and London. Despite what people imagine this process to be like - some form of battle with Sharks and Dragons - they were not intimidating at all - most were excited, warm and sharp. It was obvious that the brand of Aussie companies on the global stage have changed significantly. We are no longer the underdogs, we are the creative, capital-efficient rising stars. Thank you to the iconic Aussie companies who came before us that have paved the way for us!

It was clear early on in the process which investors truly ‘got’ us - they understood our vision and how big this opportunity is globally. It was like falling in love, and just like love, the emotions are real.?

The three best words to describe how I’m feeling right now are proud, grateful and to be honest, relieved! ??

Strategic and bullish investors

We are excited to welcome a group of strategic and bullish investors who can help us fuel an enormous vision. We’ve got ideas that we don’t know how to execute on and plans to take on markets that we’ve never done business in. This is totally normal - it’s our Series A and we’re just getting started - but to do this, we need investors with an appetite for risk, a love for uncertainty and a bullish mindset on building companies.

Tiger Global are the most active venture investors in the world, here is an article about why they are winning.?Awesome working with you John.

Adam at Skip Capital was helping Adrian & I long before Mr Yum was born. We are excited to be officially working with you, mate.?

We had the most memorable intro call in a tiny call booth in New York with Sky, Seamus & Nick at VU Venture Partners; the way you decide which categories are rising tides and your plans to shake up VC is super clever.?

Dan & Vivek at Commerce Ventures are eComm & payment experts; it was awesome meeting you in San Fran and I appreciate your help already.?

Angel investors are a super important part of a startups journey too. Nick Shelton of Broadsheet, you are a thought leader in our industry and we’re grateful for the partnership. Bram Sugamam at Shopify, thank you for the intros and words of wisdom you’ve given us along the way. Aviv Sadra at Afterpay, for being a huge Mr Yum fan early on and orchestrating our partnership. Rob Phillpot (ex-Aconex) and Ruslan Kogan for your wisdom in growing big businesses and building successful teams.?

And of course, to our existing investors who have continued to back us time and time again. Special mention to Stew at TEN13, James at Airtree Ventures and Alex at Linktree - this wouldn’t have been possible without the introductions you made and your (regular) late night & early morning coaching calls... I’m sure you’re just as relieved as us because we’ll now leave you alone, for a little bit at least. Your unwavering conviction in what we want to achieve, in helping us create a better product, team and company is both humbling and inspiring.?

The best team in the world

In the past 12 months our team has quadrupled, with more than 50 people joining in the past six months alone, now more than 120 full time. We have team members spread across Australia (Melbourne HQ, Sydney and Brisbane), the US (Los Angeles), the UK (London), South Africa (Cape Town) and the Philippines.?

Kerry, Adrian, Andrei and I couldn’t be more proud of the incredible team of awesome humans who have chosen to work at Mr Yum. Every day, you bring to life our mantras and across all roles and departments we see you Thinking 10x, Running towards the Fire and favouring Numbers over Hype. But most importantly, we see every team member living our Here to Serve mantra, going above and beyond to help our venue partners succeed, doing whatever is needed, whenever.?

It truly is a privilege working with you all.

Special thanks to Jack Rode, Corey Payne, David Cook in the Mr Yum team and Elizabeth, Vincent and Mapa at Herbert Smith Freehills, who were our secret weapons throughout the cap raise.?

On a personal note

When I left my JP Morgan graduate job in 2009, 11 months into a 24 month grad program, it was unheard of and my peers were confused. Looking back, it was there I realised that climbing the corporate ladder wasn’t what I wanted for my future. 12 years later, I feel that decision is starting to pay off.

Thank you to my parents, both small business owners who grew up with very little and worked their butts off to give my siblings and I every opportunity we wanted.?

A very big hug and thank you to our early team members, in particular, the ones that joined Mr Yum when everyone thought QR codes were dead. To our earliest group customers in Australian Venue Co and Funlab, we wouldn’t be here without you. And to the 1,500+ restaurants, cafes, pubs, bars, events and hospo groups that followed, thank you for choosing Mr Yum.

To my co-founders Kerry and Andrei for believing in me, for keeping the ship steaming forward while Adrian & I were lost at sea (trying to nail our cap raise) and for being yourselves - incredible humans I learn from everyday.

To Adrian, my partner in life, business and in capital raising, it feels so good to be on this journey with you. We started our investor meetings in Los Angeles, travelled to New York, San Francisco and London. We deliberated for hours on end towards the end of the process on that small, uncomfortable pink couch in London, laughing and crying. We got there, you are the best, love you!?

P.S. We’re hiring!?

- Kim

Read more in TechCrunch, Smart Company and The Age / SMH.