2020 has been a pivotal year for Cardiff based Fintech Yoello.

Since launching their mobile order and pay solution in June, the company has gone from strength to strength growing the team rapidly whilst supporting thousands of hospitality businesses across the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Yoello aims to disrupt the current payment networks which are outdated and expensive. By processing payments themselves, utilising open banking regulations, they want to bring operators and customers closer together with cheaper and instantaneous transactions. The platform is currently focused on the hospitality industry, from small cafes and traditional pubs to luxury hotels and large theatres. Yoello’s mobile order and pay technology also has the capability to expand into sectors such as retail and tourism.

The company’s aim is to improve efficiency, increase revenues and improve the customer experience through mobile technology, in particular in the current climate with businesses currently operating with reduced staff numbers and customer capacity. As we head towards a cashless society and a new technology led, post-Covid, future of service – Yoello’s tech will play a vital role for most businesses to survive.

Yoello’s mobile ordering solution allows customers to access digital menus simply by scanning a QR code or typing in a URL using any smartphone or web device, without needing to download an app. Customers can access table service, click & collect and delivery services all through one platform. From a merchant’s point of view, it’s very easy to set up and manage contactless order and pay either alongside an existing system or through EPOS integration.

The company was started back in 2017 after Sina, the founder of Yoello, had noticed that the hospitality industry was lagging behind in terms of digital innovation. There was a huge opportunity to support businesses with improving efficiency and customer experience through mobile technology.

During the Covid-19 national lockdown, the company quickly realised that their order and pay solution would become a must-have for businesses as they were looking ahead to reopening in July 2020 with mandatory table service and social distancing in place. The focus then was to not only help businesses improve efficiency, but to support them with reopening safely and effectively through the removal of unnecessary contact points and queues within venues. Yoello then began its journey of rapid growth as it started receiving a high influx of demand from businesses looking at their solution as a vital part of their reopening strategies and as they were looking ahead to a new, tech-led future of service.

Within the first few months of trading, Yoello has grown their original team of 4, to an organisation of 36 strong… so what has this journey of rapid growth looked like so far this year for Yoello?

The first major milestone during 2020 was securing FCA Authorisation in February after a lengthy application process. This came in just ahead of a soft launch at the start of national lockdown which helped the team to build trust with their first partnerships.

Yoello launched an initiative with local city BID, FOR Cardiff, to support local businesses with a free platform to sell goods to customers online that could then be redeemed at a later date when the business reopens to customers.

From this point onwards, the company had instant success with its in-venue mobile table ordering solution which was released in June 2020, ahead of the announced hospitality reopening date. At this point, Yoello had established itself locally and focused on a marketing push to really get noticed online. This led to an influx of online enquiries from businesses looking to reopen safely with our technology.

Yoello continued to work with the local BID and Council to set up the UK’s first mobile ordering only food court, Castle Quarter Café. This was a 240 seater pop-up food court in front of Cardiff Castle where customers could dine outside in a socially distanced environment. Customers would use their smartphone to order food and drinks to the table from more than 30 different businesses. This was a great post-lockdown initiative to bring more customers back to the city centre safely, and a way to support local businesses in the Cardiff city centre which are operating at a restricted capacity because of social distancing regulations. The project was a massive success, generating £255,000 in sales in the first 10 days of opening with 4,626 unique orders being made.

Yoello has gone on to work with other city BIDs around the UK including Leicester, Colemore, Birmingham and Halifax to find ways of supporting local hospitality businesses through its leading technology.

The platform now powers order and pay in thousands of businesses across the UK, innovating not only pubs, bars and restaurants – but in all kinds of areas within the sector including traditional market halls, theatres, cinemas and event spaces.

Yoello has already received recognition for its achievements, rapid growth and the way it managed to pivot as a business around Covid-19. The company recently won two awards at this year’s Wales Start-Up Awards, and is also shortlisted for an additional two awards at the upcoming Cardiff Business Awards.

Find out more about Yoello by visiting www.yoello.com.