For Leawood-based Menufy, selling to HungerRush is all about growth.
Menufy started looking for a buyer about a year ago to help it manage its rapid growth and continue to scale. It touched base with Houston-based HungerRush, which voiced interest in buying the company two years ago, but Menufy wasn’t ready to sell at the time.
“I think this is going to be the next phase of Menufy’s growth, and I think it’s going to be good for Kansas City,” Menufy co-founder and CEO Sharmil Desai told the Kansas City Business Journal. “I think there’s a ton of potential because there’s a lot of complementary offerings. You have more scale, so there’s opportunity to add more products.”
Founded in 2009, Menufy develops e-commerce software and custom websites for restaurants to enable online ordering. It also can integrate its technology with existing restaurant websites and point-of-sale systems. Its co-founders, who will remain with the combined company, include current and former restaurateurs who wanted a better way to do business.
HungerRush, a fast-growing restaurant-focused software company, brings a suite of products, including a point-of-sale system.
“There’s a lot of complementary things you can do if you have a point-of-sale system and online ordering,” he said.
Plus, HungerRush brings scaling know-how, multiple offices and nearly 400 employees. Moving forward, HungerRush will retain Menufy’s local office and employees. The co-founders’ new titles with the combined company will be determined in the coming months.
The pandemic catapulted Menufy’s growth, and even as restaurants returned to more normal dine-in operations, growth has remained steady for the Leawood company, Desai said.
In the past year, Menufy added thousands of restaurant customers and 70 employees, bringing the current head count to 125. Menufy has more than 12,000 customers in 3,000-plus U.S. cities.
Desai views selling the company as an opportunity to continue learning as an entrepreneur, including navigating new phases of growth.
“Change is good,” he said. “It’s another opportunity to grow.”
