Open!Eat digitises and automates meal vouchers

Open! is a company created in France just one year ago. It presents itself as a driving force for the new generation of payment vouchers for employees. Above all, it has just unveiled the first part of its offer: Open!Eat. As its name suggests, it concerns meal vouchers and promotes an innovative vision of this service.

FACTS

• Open!Eat is based on a mobile application (for employees) and on a simplified management software (for companies). Thanks to these two modules, the offer provides complete support to help companies distribute meal vouchers to their employees.

• Basically, the FinTech offers a completely dematerialised solution that is supposed to eliminate all the weaknesses of the meal vouchers offered on the market up to now. To do this, it relies on a technical argument: Open Banking.

• Thanks to partnerships signed with Bridge, Open!Eat automates the management of meal vouchers:

• employees will be able to spend their meal vouchers with their own payment card

• They will then receive an automatic refund on their account, to reimburse their expenses within the maximum amount of reimbursement provided for by the legislation, and within the amount available,

• Open!Eat's corporate clients do not have to initiate anything on a daily basis. The process is automated, as Open!Eat automatically makes the transfers after employees have paid for their meals, via Bridge.

• If an employee refuses to link their accounts, the system can also allow them to declare their expenses manually by sending a photo of their receipts via the application.

• In terms of pricing, Open!Eat charges corporate clients a fee of €5-6 per month per employee. A commission is also charged to merchants and restaurant owners, of 1.5% on registered payments.

CHALLENGES

• Renewing a market in depth: In its presentation, Open! denounces a market that has not seen any real innovation for 60 years, apart from the ongoing switch from paper vouchers to cards. Open!Eat proposes a truly alternative solution since the company itself does not issue meal vouchers and thus does not meet the requirements of the National Commission for Meal Vouchers. Rather, it presents a new possible adaptation of Open Banking.

• Adapting to changes in the workplace: One of the consequences of the pandemic has been to disrupt established habits and rules. In particular, teleworking has been democratised and with it new requirements for flexibility and practicality in employee services.

• A more practical tool for the company: Beyond the benefits to employees, Open!Eat advocates a simplified design and quick integration into administrative and HR processes. New accounts for employees of client companies can be created in an hour, making the work of human resources and financial services easier.

• A saving factor: Open!Eat estimates that 10% of meal vouchers are never used. With its system, the company reimburses its employees' expenses without having to pay in advance and therefore saves money.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Open!Eat is a first stone that should build the Open! edifice in the employee benefits market. After meal vouchers, the company intends to present its vision of gift vouchers or mobility vouchers for example.

• Open! also intends to differentiate itself by insisting on the responsible nature of its offer and its strategy. It is thus committed to the environment, to a CSR approach and to fair business with retailers. On this last point, Open!Eat charges restaurant owners a commission of 1.5%, compared with 3.5 to 5% for most players in the meal voucher sector.