Peak hospitality association strikes ‘unique’ partnership with scaleup Doshii

The peak association for small businesses in the hospitality industry has struck a partnership with tech scaleup Doshii, making it cheaper for cafes and restaurants to sign up to the platform that streamlines ordering and reservations.

Restaurant and Catering Association’s 47,000-strong member base of cafes, restaurants and catering businesses will receive a 5% discount on Doshii’s monthly fee if they sign up to the platform.

Doshii’s technology allows hospitality businesses to sync more than 10 ordering, delivery, reservation and rostering apps, including Deliveroo and Mr Yum, to their point-of-sale (POS), removing the need for staff to manually reenter information.

Justin O’Donnell, chief executive of Doshii, says after five months of discussions with the hospitality association, he’s “pumped” to announce the partnership.

“It’s a unique partnership, it’s very different to what we normally do and we’re pretty pumped about it,” O’Donnell tells SmartCompany.

O’Donnell says the partnership comes at a time when hospitality businesses are struggling with a worker shortage while recovering from extended lockdowns in Victoria and New South Wales.

“There’s not a lot of staff around at the moment, and the ability to do the same amount of trade with fewer people is exactly what our solution provides,” he says.

The deal will see Restaurant and Catering’s members receive 5% off any of Doshii’s monthly plans, which range from about $9 to $39 each month, with a monthly cap of $119.

Commenting on the partnership, Restaurant and Catering Association chief executive Wes Lambert said Doshii will help hospitality venues become more efficient and eliminate many of the administration burdens that operators face.

“We are proud to have Doshii partner with R&CA to give the best possible deal for our members,” he said.

Founded in 2015 by entrepreneur Sean O’Meara, Doshii was acquired by the Commonwealth Bank in December last year.

Since the acquisition, O’Donnell has led the business through a period of strong growth, with Doshii’s customer base increasing by 60% since January 2021.

Since January, Doshii has grown its Sydney-based team to 41 staff from five and it’s currently recruiting an additional 10 new team members.

The scale-up forecasts that by December, 70% of hospitality venues across the country will be able to use its tech due to the way it can integrate with various POS systems.

According to Doshii, the platform has helped process more than 161 million orders in less than three months.