Just Eat launches its own lunch tickets solution

Food delivery giant, Just Eat TakeAway.com has just announced an unexpected partnership with payment platform Adyen. Their joint work focused on developing an alternative to restaurant vouchers.

THE FACTS

• Just Eat TakeAway.com is launching the TakeAway Pay card powered by Adyen. This MasterCard debit card will allow its holders to pay for their purchases at hundreds of thousands of food outlets around the world as well as at restaurants, whether or not they are Just Eat partners.

• The TakeAway Pay Card is a physical payment solution attached to the food allowance program initially offered by Just Eat for online purchases only.

• It is ultimately intended for employees of companies that have opted for this TakeAway Pay program.

• These companies can now order free cards for their employees. A customization tool even allows them to set usage limits for certain days or time slots.

• The card will first be available to Just Eat employees in Europe. It will then be opened to all TakeAway Pay corporate clients in Germany, Poland and the Netherlands before being extended more widely to countries covered by the TakeAway Pay service (i.e. Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Norway, Romania and Switzerland).

CHALLENGES

• More flexibility worldwide: Just Eat and Adyen present TakeAway Pay Card as a response to employees' expectations for flexibility in the post-pandemic context. TakeAway Pay Card is presented as a social benefit but above all, as a service more adapted to the hybrid working conditions that have become necessary with the crisis. Employees will be able to use their card while working from home, at the office or on business trips in Europe.

• Facilitating expense tracking: TakeAway Pay is a benefit to companies' financial and HR management teams. Adyen Issuing provides a platform to manage expenses and gain instant insight into employee spending.

• Developing its Payment-as-a-Service strategy: By partnering with one of the biggest names in the restaurant industry, Adyen is fulfilling its mission as a financial "as-a-Service" player by enabling non-financial players to develop services that compete with traditional players to serve the customer more seamlessly and immediately at the point where the customer needs that service most.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• The Anglo-Dutch meal delivery group Just Eat TakeAway had revenues of €2.4 billion in 2020. Despite heavy losses (€151 million over the same period), Just Eat TakeAway nevertheless remains the world's number one (excluding China) in home food delivery.

• A giant that Adyen has chosen as a partner as its latest results reflect (further) strong growth in 2021.

• The launch of the TakeAway Pay Card therefore sounds like a threat to the historical and disruptive players already in place on the restaurant voucher market.