Cuscapi secures RM13mil MDV financing for REV rollout

• Ensures sufficient funding to roll out across most customers in region
• Tablet to help with cross-selling initiatives and loyalty programmes

CUSCAPI Bhd has signed a project financing agreement for up to RM13 million (US$4.1 million) with Malaysian Debt Ventures Berhad (MDV) to help finance the deployment of its REV tablets in Asia.
 
With the additional financing facilities from MDV coupled with the RM29.5 million (US$9.4 million) raised from an earlier rights issue, chief executive officer Her Chor Siong said “Cuscapi is confident that it would have sufficient funding to roll out the REV tablets quickly to most of our customers across the region.”
 
In August, Digital News Asia (DNA) had interviewed Her who spoke about getting REV tablets into around 40% of the 8,000 table service outlets that Cuscapi is managing. Table service restaurants are mid-tier restaurants.
 
Cuscapi is a Bursa Malaysia listed company providing business management solutions for clients in over 29 countries. It is especially strong in the food and beverage (F&B) industry, which contributed 90% of its revenues that in 2012 amounted to US$18.1 million (RM58.9 million). CIMB Research estimates revenue in 2014, the first full year that REV will contribute to earnings, to come in at US$27 million (RM88 million).
 
The loan tenure for MDV’s financing facilities with MDV is 30 months. MDV is a venture financing organisation which provides contract/ project financing facilities to early- and growth-stage companies within the ICT and biotechnology fields.
 
The REV tablet is a comprehensive customer self-service solution for the F&B industry. Developed in-house with an R&D cost of US$1.23 million (RM4 million), the Android-based software was built by its 90-man software team in Suzhou with hardware design and product roadmap done out of Kuala Lumpur.
 
The REV tablet comes with various interactive features which are expected to result in cost savings and increased revenue for F&B outlets. The tablet is expected to provide customers with an easy method of ordering and help to drive loyalty programmes and other cross-selling initiatives more effectively.
 
“Currently, we are doing a pilot deployment of our REV tablets in a number of F&B outlets in the region. In Malaysia, we have already rolled out REV to a Western F&B outlet and are working on another large F&B outlet in Kuala Lumpur,” Her said.
 
“We are also working on potential REV rollouts for our customers in Singapore and China, which will be followed by deployments in other Asean countries such as Thailand and the Philippines in early 2014.
 
“Once the pilot deployment for our key strategic customers is completed by the end of this year, Cuscapi would be looking at speeding up the mass deployment of REV in 2014,” he added.
 
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