Mobile ordering and payments company Mr Yum has acquired leading hospitality Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and marketing company Sprout.

The two London-based companies will combine, with Sprout’s full-time staff joining Mr Yum to create a global team of more than 260 employees, who will continue building innovative tools for hospitality and entertainment venues in the UK and around the world.

Mr Yum CEO and Co-founder Kim Teo says the acquisition will accelerate the company’s mission of connecting venues with their guests in meaningful and valuable ways.

“This deal is an evolution of a successful partnership between our two companies, with Sprout integrated with Mr Yum in many shared locations over the past year, including Boxpark and Swingers crazy golf venues,” she says.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Sprout into the Mr Yum family. They’ve built a world-class team and technology solution and we’re excited to pour fuel on the fire and dream big with the innovation that’s possible by combining our two offerings.”

Teo says consumers are eager to have more personalised dining experiences and the acquisition will accelerate the development of sophisticated new products to enable hospitality operators to deliver bespoke service to their customers.

“Together, we’ll build things that have never been done in hospitality before. Our venue customers are screaming out for innovative ways to create ongoing, meaningful relationships with their guests, like being able to offer unique discounts or to let them know their favourite item is back on the menu,” she says.

"We're going to make a real difference in the way people experience dining. You’ll walk in the door and the host will know your name, your favourite table to sit at, the pinot noir you enjoy and that you love spicy food.

“By combining our products at an incredibly deep level, this vision will soon become a reality.”

Sprout is the leading CRM and marketing platform for hospitality venues with brands including Nando’s, Shake Shack and Accor Hotels using the company’s technology in thousands of locations across the UK, Australia and the US.

Mr Yum is the global market leader in mobile ordering and payments for restaurants, with offices across Australia, the UK and the US. The acquisition follows Mr Yum’s £58M capital raise in 2021.

Sprout co-founder Andy Marcus says combining the two companies will drive the creation of a global best-in-class growth platform for hospitality and entertainment venues.

“Together we’ll be able to rapidly scale solutions to provide venues with deeper and more seamless insights into their customers, which will enable them to provide superior and more meaningful hospitality experiences,” he says.

“Integrating our powerful and intuitive CRM into Mr Yum’s industry-leading platform will help create elegant, data-driven one-to-one conversations between venues and their guests for the first time. We are incredibly excited about what the future holds for the company.”

Mr Yum has grown from 12 to more than 260 full-time staff in the past 24 months, with teams in London, Sydney, Brisbane and the Melbourne headquarters.

Mr Yum has 15 million users and more than 1500 venues on the platform globally.