Yooga, a company focused on developing a restaurant operation management system in Brazil, has secured its inaugural institutional funding round, raising $2.3 million in seed capital. SaaSholic led the funding round, joined by investors Gilgamesh, Apex Partners, and Backfuture.
The company, co-founded by Vinicius Melo, Victor Sortica, and Cassiano Guerra Fernandes in 2017, initially self-funded Yooga for three years before obtaining $300,000 in a friends-and-family investment round in 2020. The idea for Yooga originated from Vinicius Melo’s experiences waiting tables during his college years. He envisioned creating software to streamline restaurant operations and provide a user-friendly solution, accessible to individuals regardless of their tech proficiency.
Melo’s commitment to this vision led him to immerse himself in a software development environment, reminiscent of the TV show “Silicon Valley.” It was in this setting that he connected with Sortica, a developer interested in helping bring Melo’s vision to life.
Yooga offers a comprehensive software solution that empowers restaurants to manage orders, streamline kitchen operations, facilitate last-mile delivery, and efficiently control inventory and cash flow. Their overarching goal is to unite these diverse processes into a single, integrated platform. Remarkably, Yooga can onboard customers within a week, and many start seeing tangible results in as little as two months.
The founders of Yooga aspire to become the “Toast of Latin America,” drawing inspiration from Toast’s successful journey in a similar space. They emphasize that Yooga doesn’t view Toast as a direct competitor, given the fragmented nature of the Brazilian market. There are hundreds of companies with hundreds of customers, and legacy software solutions weren’t adapting quickly enough to meet the evolving needs of modern restaurants.
To provide some context, Yooga currently serves over 6,000 clients and is experiencing steady growth. The majority of these clients previously relied on paper and spreadsheets for their operations. Notably, around 60% of restaurants in Brazil do not utilize any software tools.
Yooga’s revenue primarily stems from monthly subscriptions, some starting as low as $35 per month. The company is also exploring additional revenue streams from payment processing and professional services.
Annually, Yooga manages $2 billion in transactions, processing more than 4 million orders per month through its platform. The recent investment values the company at $20 million post-investment.
Melo and Sortica intend to allocate the funding towards expanding their team and further advancing their technology. They have exciting features in the pipeline, including a “tap on phone” solution and PIX payment options. These innovations are expected to double Yooga’s average revenue per user and bolster its growth trajectory.
“While we have had positive EBITDA in the last three or four months and didn’t need the funding urgently, we understand the importance of timing in a competitive landscape. With fewer companies raising funds at the moment, we wanted to seize the opportunity to accelerate our growth. Our ultimate goal is to become the dominant force in our category,” said Sortica.
