Walden leads $2.6m round for Singapore's TabSquare

According to a statement, participants in the round also included Singaporean firms Infocomm Investments and Phillip Private Equity as well as Raging Bull, a vehicle controlled by ThaiExpress restaurant chain founder Ivan Lee. The capital will be used to strengthen the start-up's presence in Singapore, expand into regional markets and develop technology.

"TabSquare has been able to address the [food and beverage] industry pain points of a tight labor market, increasing costs and low profitability," said Kris Leong, vice president of Walden. "We were impressed by the company's ability to scale the business in a capital efficient manner."

The company has more than 150 stores as customers including Far East Hospitality, Food Theory Group, Global Retail Partners and Japan Foods Holding, as well as brands such as Nihon Mura, Bistro 1855 and Wala Wala Group. The technology encompasses systems for analyzing consumer behavior and spending patterns as well as reducing staffing requirements through customized tablet menus that diners can also use to pay the bill.

"This is the future of restaurants," Lee said. "TabSquare's approach of building a strong end-to-end platform from ground up, their vision of making restaurant operations more data driven and their strong business model are what makes them unique and best positioned to be a leader in this space."

Walden targets seed and early stage Southeast Asian companies in the semiconductor, software, internet and digital media sectors. The firm's recent fundraising efforts in Singapore have benefited from the government's Early Stage Venture Fund (ESVF) initiative, which aims to match LP investments in local VCs on a 1:1 basis. The firm received S$10 million from ESVF in both 2014 and 2008.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Consumer
• Technology
• Expansion
• Singapore
• Walden International