The Australian platform putting a restaurant's entire back of house - ordering, invoices, costing and payments - behind a single login.
Walk into almost any independent restaurant kitchen before service and you will find the same routine: a text message to the vegetable supplier, a phone call to the butcher, an email to the packaging wholesaler, a scribbled note for the fishmonger. It is how the hospitality industry has ordered its supplies for decades. FoodByUs looked at that scattered process and saw something most people missed - software.
Founded in 2016 and based in Surry Hills, Sydney, FoodByUs is a business-to-business platform that lets restaurants, cafes, pubs, caterers and aged-care venues order wholesale food and alcohol, manage their supplier invoices, track prices, cost menus and handle payments, all in one place. The company describes itself as an all-inclusive wholesale food ordering solution. In practice, it is trying to be the operating layer for a venue's purchasing.
The founders were not new to reshaping how Australia buys food. Ben Lipschitz, Tim Chandler and Gary Munitz were part of the team behind Menulog, the food-delivery service that changed how consumers order dinner. With FoodByUs they turned the question around: not how you order a meal, but how the restaurant orders everything before you sit down.
It is an unglamorous corner of food technology - invoices, price changes, delivery windows, payment terms. But it is also where thin hospitality margins quietly leak. FoodByUs's bet is that the venues who thrive will be the ones who can see and control those costs in real time.
Ordering across dozens of suppliers by text, call and email leaves venues with no central record, no live pricing and hours of admin reconciling paper invoices.
The Pain PointFoodByUs consolidates every supplier into one cart and one invoice archive, with order tracking, confirmations and AI that reads dockets to pull up-to-date prices.
The PlatformRestaurants, cafes, pubs and clubs, caterers, hotels, aged-care facilities and manufacturers - reportedly more than 1,000 venues across Australia.
The CustomersCrucially, FoodByUs does not force venues to abandon the suppliers they trust. A kitchen can keep ordering from its own established butcher or greengrocer through the platform, or choose from hundreds of industry-partnered wholesalers across more than twelve categories - fruit and veg, dairy, seafood, meat and poultry, baked goods, packaging and alcohol among them. That lower-friction approach - digitise the relationship rather than replace it - is a large part of why venues sign on.
A B2B marketplace spanning 12+ food categories and hundreds of partnered suppliers - or a venue's own existing suppliers.
SINCE 2016Web and mobile ordering that pools every supplier into one cart, with tracking, confirmation and full order history.
SINCE 2016Receive, filter, preview and download every supplier invoice in one place, with AI extraction that captures data and live prices.
2024Menu costing, price tracking, COGS management and custom business-insight reports.
FROM 2020Card or 14-day terms, a Finalise Payment tool, and a no-fee instant finance product to smooth supplier payment timing.
2025Direct sync with Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks, plus a Shop & Save cashback program on favourite brands.
FROM 2022FoodByUs runs a hybrid model. It earns through its wholesale marketplace by connecting venues and suppliers, through software tools for procurement and invoice management, and through payment and finance products layered on top of transaction flow. The strategy is to monetise the plumbing of food supply while giving venues software that cuts admin and food costs.
The market it sits in is large and famously fragmented. Australian hospitality spends billions on wholesale supply each year, and the cafe sector alone is estimated at around 8 billion dollars - a segment FoodByUs pursued after noticing how many cafes kept signing up. By pooling hundreds of independent buyers, the platform lets a single venue negotiate closer to the purchasing power of a large group.
Reported cumulative funding sits in the range of roughly A$23-31 million across rounds, according to third-party trackers. Exact totals vary by source.
Co-Founder and CEO. Before FoodByUs he founded and sold Flipsters, a foldable footwear company. Named Entrepreneur of the Year at the Executive Awards.
CO-FOUNDER & CEOCo-Founder. Previously Menulog's lead developer, bringing the engineering foundation for the platform.
CO-FOUNDERCo-Founder. A founder of Menulog, one of Australia's best-known food-delivery businesses.
CO-FOUNDEREx-Menulog founders Ben Lipschitz, Tim Chandler and Gary Munitz launch the platform in Sydney.
The start of a run of more than 600% sales growth over the following years.
Raises A$10 million to expand the hospitality supply marketplace.
Raises A$12 million led by Base Capital, with FJ Labs participating.
Launches the AI-powered Invoice Hub and new mobile apps; closes a Series C round.
Adds the Finalise Payment tool and a no-fee instant finance product, extending into full back-of-house operations.
FoodByUs competes with other hospitality procurement and B2B food-ordering platforms such as Ordermentum and Marketman, as well as the ordering systems built by large wholesalers. But its most persistent competitor is the status quo itself - the manual mix of phone, text and email that still handles most venue ordering. Its differentiation is breadth: rather than solving one slice, it aims to cover ordering, invoicing, costing and payment in a single system, while letting venues keep their existing suppliers.
It's an Australian B2B platform where hospitality venues order wholesale food and alcohol, manage supplier invoices, track prices, cost menus and handle payments - all in one place.
Restaurants, cafes, pubs and clubs, caterers, hotels, aged-care facilities and food manufacturers across Australia - reportedly over 1,000 venues.
It was founded in 2016 by Ben Lipschitz, Tim Chandler and Gary Munitz, the team previously behind Menulog.
Through a hybrid marketplace and SaaS model - marketplace transactions, procurement and invoice software, and payment and finance products.
No. Venues can order from FoodByUs's partnered suppliers or keep ordering from their own existing suppliers through the platform.
Sources: FoodByUs (foodbyus.com.au), Crunchbase, Business News Australia, Startup Daily, Dynamic Business, Hospitality Magazine, The CEO Magazine, Tracxn, PitchBook. Some figures are third-party estimates and marked as approximate.