Ashish Tulsian, the CEO and Co-Founder of POSist, speaks about the company’s startup story, the plans for the region, and the new app marketplace

What is the POSist’s startup story?
The idea for POSist came up when we (Sakshi and I) were looking for POS software for our restaurant in India, ending up creating one for ourselves. We soon found that several others found it useful, and so POSist was born and has, we believe, changed the way restaurants deal with their customers at the front end and automate operations at the back end. Today we have successfully registered a global presence, with more than 9000 customers in 35 countries.

We were the first company to provide a complete online POS solution for restaurants that is also internet-outage friendly. POSist derives its edge from being a company focused only on the food industry, helping all types of food businesses, from a standalone food outlet to a large food chain, manage functions like billing, CRM, inventory control, recipe and wastage management, centralised menu management, vendor management and more, creating an easy to use the bridge to technology. Real-time mobile reporting helps restaurant owners keep a close watch on their business.

Tell us about POSist’s plans for the region?
Building upon the momentum of the growing recovery of the economies in the region, POSist has expanded its reach in the Gulf. The GCC is the second-largest market for us outside India. In the last year, despite the pandemic, we have doubled our customer base in the Gulf, serving over 100 brands in the region. Early this year, POSist announced the appointment of Ajay Singh, ex-CEO of Pizza Hut & Costa Coffee India, as the Chief Growth Officer to drive expansion across the Sub-Continental India, Middle East, Americas, and the UK, based out of Dubai.

Has the pandemic had any impact on the F&B sector? How did POSist work with its customers in the region to ensure business continuity?
The pandemic has forced this sector to recalibrate itself. As we continue to recover from COVID-19, restaurateurs are emerging stronger with sustainable & innovative business models. The industry is at a point where contactless dining, guest experience, multichannel delivery, and take-out services have become necessary to serve the customers’ changing behaviours.

Restaurants are now turning to technology more than ever to spring back to growth; interestingly POSist Restaurant Industry & Market Evolution (PRIME) Report, released earlier this year, highlighted that seven out of ten restaurants in the UAE are willing to invest up to 8 percent of their revenues in technology to improve their customer experience, bring more efficiency to their operations, and boost their profitability.

We are continually working with our customers to find solutions and evolve our platform to ensure that they get the most out of it and that it helps them become more efficient. We recently introduced our app marketplace for the restaurant industry.

The POSist marketplace allows restaurants to quickly discover and install trusted third-party applications to make the front and back of house operations more efficient. The marketplace currently has over 150+ technology partners offering online-ordering platforms, digital wallets, cloud telephony software, table reservation platforms, loyalty programs, and delivery integration with top online food aggregators globally.