Online food ordering platform Bopple passes 1 million orders

A Brisbane entrepreneur who co-founded an online food ordering platform last year just hit a huge milestone.

A MILLION ORDERS

Even in the worst of economic downturns, you can find unexpected bright spots.

There are entrepreneurs, lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, whose new product or service strike a chord while so many businesses around them struggle.

Angus McLachlan just might be among the poster boys for this phenomena when the local history of COVID-19 is written.

The Brisbane bizoid co-founded online food ordering platform Bopple last year but could never have imagined then that coronavirus would act as jet propellant for the company.

Bopple co-founder Angus McLachlan. Picture: Peter Wallis

The desperate pivot by hospitality operators to stay afloat via takeaways and deliveries over the past few months has just seen Bopple reach a milestone.

It has now handled more than a million orders on behalf of cafes and restaurants that refuse to pay fees of up to 35 per cent per order to industry leaders such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo. Last month alone saw in excess of 100,000 orders across Queensland and NSW.

Most venue operators part with a modest 5.9 per cent fee per transaction for Bopple but there are a few different payment plans based on the amount of turnover.

More than 2000 venues across the country have now signed up for the service, which has stood out among a growing field of online ordering options.

Bopple allows consumers to order food via its app or directly from a restaurant’s website. It gives them the option of ordering well in advance and they can choose to either pick up themselves or have the goods delivered.

“Over the past month Bopple saw a threefold increase in takeaway and delivery orders via our app, and our top Brisbane venue saved $5000 by running their own deliveries,” McLachlan told us recently.

TRIO BANNED

Nearly two years after first taking legal action in Brisbane, the corporate cop has finally won the day against three company directors.

ASIC has slapped Peter Daly, Ian Williams and Paul Raftery each with a five-year ban from the financial services sector.

The gents had previously run now-defunct Linchpin Capital Group, including related entity Endeavour Securities, which operated two managed investment schemes valued at about $20 million.

The regulator alleged in Brisbane Federal Court that Linchpin lacked a financial services license and the directors had used investor funds for their own purposes without adequate disclosure.

It claimed Endeavour had entered into related party transactions and failed to properly reveal these deals.

ASIC first issued the bans in November but the trio sought to stay the decision and keep it under wraps. An appeals tribunal threw out that application last week.