METRO GROUP invests in Yoyo Wallet, a mobile payment and customer engagement platform

METRO GROUP invests in the London-based start-up Yoyo Wallet, a fast growing mobile payment and customer engagement platform operating in the European market. Founded in 2013, Yoyo provides a combination of fast and simple-to-use mobile payment, ordering, and personalised loyalty and reward programs, all backed by an analytics and campaign platform for retailers. The investment has been led by the investment arm of METRO’s digital unit and demonstrates its continued strategy to back digital business models helping hospitality and retail businesses improve their earnings potential through advanced digital tools. The round was supported by other financial investors and completion is subject to certain normal closing conditions and approval by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

"Yoyo has convinced a growing number of customers to deploy its data-driven payment and loyalty marketing solutions, including most recently, Caffè Nero, the third largest coffee retail chain in the UK. With its strong track record of deploying digital technology at the customer interface, Yoyo’s solution can have a meaningful positive impact on a wide spectrum of retail businesses, in particular in the food and beverage segment. As digitization becomes mainstream in hospitality, Yoyo’s technology is a strong candidate for currently untapped market segments. As part of our engagement, METRO intends to contribute to this deployment," says Hansjörg Sage, General Manager at the digital unit of METRO GROUP.

Yoyo’s technology allows retailers of all sizes to provide their customers with a best-in-class branded mobile experience, whilst customizing their offerings from an array of available Yoyo services. Besides quick and efficient mobile payment, these include personalised loyalty programs and reward schemes, as well as pre-ordering and order- and/or pay-at-table. As a consequence, retailers benefit from increased check-out speed, lower cash handling costs, whilst being able to get to "know" their customers and provide targeted rewards and offers on their customer’s phone, either at point of sale, or at any point of time through the customer relationship. These advantages are particularly applicable in quick service cafes, restaurants, pubs and bars as well as in convenience store environments.

"Yoyo is now delivering proven benefits to a rapidly growing number of retailers and their customers in universities, corporate campuses and on the high street. We know consumers are spending more than three hours a day on their smartphones and we also know 40% buy more when subject to a personalised shopping experience. Yoyo simply provides retailers with an accessible way of tapping into these behaviours," said Alain Falys, Co-Founder and CEO of Yoyo Wallet. "This new funding will allow us to provide the benefits of mobile payment, customer identification and engagement to a wider array of retailers, large and small, in the UK and across Europe. We could not have found a better combination of Investors to support us through this next stage of growth."

James Hook, Partner at METRO GROUP’s digital unit and to-be-elected board member of Yoyo Wallet, said: "we are delighted to be supporting Yoyo in its ambition to become the leading digital mobile payment and customer engagement platform. We are looking forward to working together with Alain and the rest of the Yoyo team to help support the development of Yoyo’s business."

Yoyo Wallet is one of the fastest growing and largest multi-retailer mobile wallets in the UK. Founded in 2013 by Alain Falys, Michael Rolph and Dave Nicholson, it was recently chosen by Marketing Week as one of the Top 100 Disruptor Brands and by KPMG as one of 50 FinTechs to watch globally. Now in its 4th year, Yoyo Wallet powers retailer experiences across the UK on the high street, in universities and in corporate locations. To find out more, please contact andy@yoyowallet.com or visit http://www.yoyowallet.com/retailers/