Meal Vouchers: Lunchr Raises €30 Million

FACTS

• Just 7 months after an €11 million funding round, Lunchr –start-up whose model is based on dematerialising meal vouchers– announces a €30 million round table.

• In addition to historical investors including Daphni and Idinvest, this round table was led by Kima Ventures (investment fund by Xavier Niel) and Index Ventures (which also invested in start-ups such as Dropbox, Revolut and Deliveroo).

• Goals: Attract 200,000 users by the end of 2019, or slightly over €400 million in issuing volume.

• Key points: Lunchr features…
  • A Mastercard-compatible paperless meal voucher service (while their rivals rely on private-label networks)
  • In-app preorders for meals from partner restaurants and supermarkets
  • In-app real-time transaction tracking
  • Grouped orders with applied rewards (saving customers up to 25%)

• This funding round should enable them to hire 70 sales reps to increase their sales force. They intend to double their workforce in 2019 and international rollouts are also considered.

Lunchr: Key Figures

• 2,000 corporate customers (incl. lliad, Redbull and Spotify)
• 100% retention rate
• 1,000 partner restaurants
• 60 employees
• 18,000 institutions

CHALLENGES

• Lead the market for digitising luncheon vouchers. Roughly 85% of the meal voucher market remains paper-based but Lunchr claims that this industry cannot escape the on-going dematerialisation trend, however time-consuming.

• Grow on a competitive market. The French meal voucher market is still led by large-scale groups including Sodexo, Chèque Déjeuner and Edenred, which feature paperless solutions in addition to paper format vouchers.

• Aim for an IPPO. This start-up with offices in Paris and Montpellier would aim for an IPO, even if they haven’t yet specified a date.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Back in 2017, Lunchr first described themselves as a service for easily ordering meals, and soon managed to enter the market for luncheon vouchers. They raised over €41 million in less than a year.

• By way of matching today’s consumer habits and familiarity with new entrants such as Uber, long-standing players have been dematerialising their offers, too. Edenred, for instance, implemented a multiservice digital strategy. Lunchr played the game well with their solution as they focus on customer experience and associated advantages.