Liven app gives diners 25 per cent cash back

THIS app gives you 25 per cent of your bill back at the end of your meal. Believe it or not, restaurants are scrambling to get on board.

AN AUSSIE restaurant app which offers diners 25 per cent cash back on their bill has signed up more than 500 restaurants across Sydney and Melbourne.

Since launching in 2014, Liven, a “lifestyle loyalty payment app”, has grown to more than 120,000 users, with plans to expand to Perth in coming months as part of a national rollout.

The app, created by university friends Will Wong, Grace Wong and David Ballerini, lets customers pay for their restaurant bill on their phone, with 25 per cent of the value then credited back into their account.

That credit can then be used at any other participating restaurant. Liven says average users earn $20 per meal, with some regulars earning as much as $1500 credit on their accounts. Collectively, Australians spend $45 billion a year dining out.

“You could say it’s like a closed currency which you can use in any of the Liven venues,” said Mr Wong. “You’re then able to share a portion of that with charity.”

While it first launched in 2014, Mr Wong says the latest version is feature complete and being treated as the “official launch”. Liven now includes payment and cashback functionality within the app. Previously, users could not pay for their bill through the app — the cashback came in the form of discounts from the restaurants.

It may seem strange, but Mr Wong says the loyalty and marketing benefit for restaurants being on the app far outweighs the 25 per cent discount customers receive. “In the past these restaurants have given up in some cases 50 per cent, even 60 per cent with GroupOn and all these daily deal sites,” he said.

“Once-off discounts where the customers never come back. People just took the discount and off they went. Whereas with our platform, you’re not getting a discount, you’re giving them a credit reward for them to come back and spend into the system. It’s a real positive for the restaurants.”

Liven founders David Ballerini, Grace Wong and Will Wong.

Sheryl Wonorahardjo, owner of Yuzu Japanese restaurant in Melbourne, said she had already noticed a spike in business.

“Since joining the platform we’ve found the app super quick and easy for customers and staff to use,” she said. “By making it easy for customers to pay and earn cash credit, we are seeing an increase in customer numbers and loyalty.”

There is a catch, however: users of the free version can only use the app five times per venue. Users of the $40-a-year premium version can use the app unlimited times per venue. Mr Wong says those limits will be relaxed.

“We have plans to relax those restrictions very soon,” he said. “We’ve seen customers’ behaviour changing. There are a lot of people who are going to the same venue every single day, and we want to encourage that behaviour.”

Liven operates on a freemium model. Restaurants pay a commission for each transaction, which Liven calls a “marketing allowance rate”, because “we are using most of that to promote that restaurant through incentivising our users by giving them cash credit and using the balance to promote these venues through our affiliated channels and partners”.

“If there’s any left over, that’s our profit,” Mr Wong said. “It is performance based. If we do a sloppy job we lose money, if we do a good job we make money.”

Earlier this year, Liven scored a $10 million investment from a Melbourne venture capital firm, but the capital is milestone-based, meaning the funding is unlocked in stages as the company expands to new cities.

“Milestone-based funding is becoming fairly common,” Mr Wong said. “The reason being is that investors have been burnt by giving the lump sum in one go and seeing the money burning right in front of their eyes.

“It keeps us on the edge of making sure we hit that milestone, it keeps us motivated, but it also gives us the ability to not have to deplete that funding if we’re able to secure other funds at a much better rate.”

The next step is Perth, then a third and fourth Australian city. “Then we’ve got our eyes set on the US, Canada, there are also possible talks of a UK expansion,” he said.

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