By RTN Staff - 8.5.2022
Since its founding in 2013, MenuSifu has established itself as the market leader in the Asian-American restaurant community. The company was cofounded by Li Yu, formerly a data researcher at Columbia’s Medical School, who also now serves as the company’s CEO. He reportedly started MenuSifu to address some of the common challenges faced by Asian-American restaurant owners and operators. These challenges included language barriers, poor banking relationships and tight cash flow.
The company’s core products include its flagship POS system that is multilingual and also billed as highly customizable. Integrated within the system is the company’s mobile and online ordering platform, dubbed MealKeyway, which is designed to enhance a restaurant’s brand visibility and accessibility. Add-on accessories such as credit card processing, together with the POS, build a one-stop shop experience. Menusifu’s POS system allows customers to track and measure daily transactions, consolidate sales, inventory and labor activities for recording purposes and also to help increase revenue and reduce costs.
According to a company press statement, MenuSifu intends to use the new funds to “provide restaurants with scalable all-in-one solutions, by upgrading software and expanding product lines that save on management costs, and streamline online ordering and delivery.”
Asian-American restaurateurs, who have often built businesses on extremely thin margins, have borne the brunt of the pandemic. Approximately 6,000 Asian restaurants closed their doors in 2021, according to a research study by The Restaurateur. In the United States, many of these restaurants were started and run by first and second-generation immigrants and provided a steady source of income.
A recent example is MenuSifu’s ‘one-click online ordering’ solution with Google, which allows consumers to place orders directly from Google search results.
MenuSifu’s further expansion into the U.S. market comes alongside the firm’s continued success within the Asian-American community. Launching off a strong foundation with more than 15,000 accounts across all 50 states, including Michelin star awarded restaurant Bistro Na’s, Fu Niu Tang, Tiger Sugar, and more, MenuSifu’s intelligent POS and online ordering solutions have distinguished the brand as a master of smart restaurant digitization, modernizing dining for the post-pandemic era. MenuSifu’s broadened scope encompasses an extension of affordable POS integration offerings and continued support for digitalization in Asian-American restaurants.
“With innovation comes the added challenges of effective integration. Our modernizing technologies and solutions have been built and tested to unleash the true potential of our clients,” said Li. “We view these new, pandemic-era challenges as opportunities to expand meaningfully in our adopted market, and improve customer service standards across the industry. What’s best for our customers has always been what’s best for our growth.”
