A Kiwi B2B market for the hospitality and meals service business developed by a cofounder Xero has crossed the ditch to Australia after elevating NZ$6 million (A$5.5m).

Upstock is the brainchild of Duncan Ritchie and Philip Fierlinger, who was a part of the 2006 founding staff of ASX-listed accounting platform Xero.

The elevate was backed by Icehouse Ventures, Attainable Ventures, Sir Stephen Tindall’s K1W1, and NZVC, together with founders from marquee tech corporations together with Vend, Karbon, Marketing campaign Monitor and Sharesies.

Fierlinger stated his e-commerce platform guarantees to rework the way in which hospitality business operates, offering a superior networking channel for consumers and suppliers to do enterprise.

“Upstock eliminates guide logistics processes and supplies a brand new channel to market giving smaller, artisanal hospitality, meals and native grocery suppliers entry to a focused community of huge grocery store chains and restaurant consumers,” he stated. 

Since launching in New Zealand in 2020, greater than 20,000 consumers and practically 1,000 suppliers have used the wholesale ordering web site. Income quadrupled in 2022 and Fierlinger is now on the lookout for contemporary funding to increase into the US market.

“Upstock is able to shake issues up in Australian hospitality and meals service,” he stated.

“The business continues to be feeling the devastating results of the pandemic and now an financial slowdown has hit the business laborious. We consider Upstock will play an essential function in supporting new and present hospitality and meals service companies to get again on high.

“The platform dramatically simplifies and streamlines operations for each consumers and suppliers – rising a firm’s total sustainability and profitability – all whereas making day-to-day duties a lot quicker and simpler. Not solely does this platform assist artisanal suppliers get their merchandise into extra supermarkets, eating places and shops it additionally encourages consumers to buy extra regionally.”

It makes use of freemium pricing construction and doesn’t cost any upfront setup charges or take a fee on orders from suppliers.

It’s free for each consumers and suppliers to deal with all their orders and solely fees $1 (or much less) to suppliers who need superior order administration performance.