Drink-ordering app for pubs launches in Dublin

Crowding around a bar awaiting your turn to order may become a thing of the past as a new smartphone app, Orderella, officially launches after the Web Summit in Dublin tonight. So far 19 venues across the city, including well-known venues like Copper Face Jacks and Lillie's Bordello, have signed up to the system which allows bar clients to order their food and drinks at their tables from their smartphones.

Users can browse a pub's food and drinks menu, place orders and pay with Paypal or credit card details stored on the app. Once the order is ready, it can be picked up or will be delivered to the table by bar staff.

"I've heard of people ordering out of their taxis while about 300 yards away from the bar," said Orderella chief executive Dennis Collet, who was inspired to create the app in October 2011 on a night out with friends in London.

According to Mr Collet, bars that adopt Orderella’s system save time on processing payment, so they can fulfil more orders, shorten queues and reduce waiting time. Bartenders can look at all orders coming in, group orders together and make the drinks that take longer first – while in a traditional queue the bartender will serve the first customer in line first.

"Porterhouse in London has been using Orderella for more than 12 months now," said Dave Morrissey, general manager at Lillie's Bordello, which is part of the Porterhouse Group. The app was first launched in November 2013 in Britain and is available in 130 venues there. The company plans to expand to bars Galway, Cork and Belfast next month.

Orderella’s revenue comes from charging venues 4 per cent commission and has raised £1.6 million (€2.05 million) from two funding rounds through the UK’s Enterprise Investment Scheme, business angels, clients and suppliers in the hospitality industry. The company is among several hundred hoping to entice further venture capital funding at the summit.

According to Mr Collet: “We are now looking for a strategic partner and we’re in the market for investment in the range of €5 million to €10 million. We want to expand next into Scandinavia, western Europe and Australia.”

Yesterday it was the turn of Northern Ireland’s start-ups to pitch their ideas to investors at a warm-up event held in Belfast. Hosted by Invest Northern Ireland and held in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter, the event saw 150 global technology start-ups and 20 investors attend. Speakers included CoderDojo founder James Whelton and Datahug founder Connor Murphy.