Mobile ordering start-up Q App acquired by Yoyo Wallet

Q App, a solution which allows users to avoid queues by ordering and paying for drinks via their smartphone, has been acquired by Yoyo Wallet for an undisclosed amount.

Launched in June 2013 by Serge Taborin and Tim Bichara, Startups 100-listed Q App had scaled to over 45,000 users and over 30 venues including Liverpool Football Club, Mecca Bingo, the Southbank Centre and The Royal Albert Hall.

Its purchase by fellow Startups 100-listed Yoyo Wallet – a mobile payments app which allows retailers to target customers with rewards, offers and incentives based on profile and history date – will see Yoyo merge Q App’s technology into its new pre-ordering feature ‘Jump’.

Yoyo has said the acquisition will enable it to fulfil its goal of becoming the single mobile payment destination “that delivers value to the consumer before, during and after the transaction”.

Following the deal, Q App co-founder Taborin has accepted a role at Aviva where he will head up the insurance firm’s Global Innovation division and will look to capitalise on the growing demand for insurance technology (insuretech); a sector Taborin believes will become a “pretty hot space” over the next year.

Commenting on the acquisition, Q App’s Taborin said it was a “great fit with what Yoyo are doing” while Bichara said: “With the fast adoption of mobile payment solutions amongst both users and retailers, Q App’s growth and popularity attracted the attention of major players.

“The unique team Yoyo has built, together with the quality of the product and the expansion strategy all made for an easy decision for us to become a part of Yoyo.”

Yoyo CEO and co-founder, Alain Falys, added that he was “hugely excited” to incorporate Q App into the platform:

“Our goal at Yoyo Wallet has always been to evolve the relationship between a consumer and their wallet. That means taking the classic payment experience and creating unexpected value; it also means solving recognised problems. And what is more recognised and loathed than the queue. Q App’s technology topped any other available solution across the