Payments provider giant Moneris has acquired UEAT, a Québec-based SaaS startup for an undisclosed amount.
Founded in 2017, UEAT provides online ordering solutions for restaurants and other food places across North America. Powered by artificial intelligence, its technology is based on an exclusive recommendation module, the RAI, which allows business owners to curate relevant, personalized, and non-intrusive online ordering experiences for their customers. The RAI also gives restaurateurs access to their customer data and deep analytics.
Toronto-based Moneris was founded in December 2000 and created as a joint investment between RBC and BMO Bank of Montréal.
According to Moneris, it had been previously acquainted with UEAT when it became the preferred payment processor for UEAT’s Canadian market. The completed acquisition will see the integration of Moneris’ suite of digital payment offerings with UEAT’s online ordering solutions.
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Moneris said that with this development, users will be able to easily engage in omni-channel ordering and sales, optimize capacity, access customer data, address labour shortage, and increase the overall lifetime value of repeat customers.
UEAT will continue to operate its business independently with no changes to its structure, as it will be joining Moneris as a subsidiary.
“The food service industry has changed dramatically over the past few years,” said Angela Brown, president and CEO of Moneris. “Omni-channel ordering and sales is a must have feature for these businesses.”
Ipsos’ data showed that 28 percent of full-service restaurant sales were via delivery in 2020, a significant increase from 2019’s numbers when it was only nine percent.
Currently, Moneris is actively expanding its restaurant solutions suite, with the company adding Lightspeed Restaurant to its menu of iPad point-of-sale (POS) products in 2019.
Moneris’ partnership with Lightspeed provides businesses in Canada with a modern POS and reporting system to facilitate the processing of restaurant payments.
In February this year, Moneris also partnered with Elevate, the Toronto event-turned-tech hub, to launch eCommerce North—an accelerator for e-commerce startups based in Canada. The startups joining the accelerator were announced in April and it includes Beam.City, Beeja May, Cooks Who Feed, and DropCommerce.
A Moneris spokesperson told BetaKit that the company plans to continue working with Canadian startups through either partnerships, investments, or acquisitions.