Parent company of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC to acquire Dragontail technology/AI provider for $72.4 million

Yum!, the parent company of Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut! Brands Inc. said in a news release that it has completed a binding agreement to acquire Dragontail Systems Limited, an Australian-based food service technology provider, through a share arrangement scheme under the Australian Corporations Act.

Yum Brands says the successful completion of a more than $72.4 million transaction will allow the Louisville, Kentucky-based QSR company to scale Dragontail’s AI kitchen order management and delivery technology globally. Stated.

Dragontail’s platform focuses on optimizing and managing the entire food preparation process from order to delivery. The AI-based solution automates restaurant kitchen flow and delivery driver dispatch. Yum said the technology can also work with external food delivery partners, and the technology provider also offers consumer-facing features that allow customers to track their orders.

“With Dragontail, we look forward to leveraging the power of AI to accelerate and further enhance our delivery technology capabilities, especially at Pizza Hut, and optimize the end-to-end food preparation process,” said Yum Brands CFO Chris. Turner said in a release. .

Dragontail’s platform is currently deployed in approximately 1,500 Pizza Hut restaurants in more than 10 countries. If the deal announced today is successfully implemented, Yum! The brand plans to expand Dragontail’s platform over time and offer it to its own brands around the world. In addition to kitchen order management and delivery technology, Yum’s acquisition of Dragontail will also bring other new Dragontail technologies into the company, the companies said.

“Delicious! The brand and Dragontail have enjoyed a fruitful collaboration over the years,” Dragontail Managing Director Ido Lebanon said in a release. “The Dragontail Board fully supports this transaction, which we believe is an attractive opportunity for our shareholders and will provide innovative technology to the Yum brand. The activities of the Tail and Yum brands are complementary and the synergies are natural and we congratulate them on the completion of the acquisition. ”

If completed, the acquisition would join Yum Brands’ acquisition of Kvantum Inc., an AI-based consumer insights and marketing performance analysis company, in March of this year, and Tictuk Technologies, which provides an omnichannel ordering and marketing platform. This is the company’s third technology acquisition this year.

The acquisition is subject to approval by the Federal Court of Australia, approval by Dragontail shareholders, and certain other regulatory exemptions and judgments, but Yum hopes to complete the transaction in an all-cash transaction by the end of the third quarter of this year. It has said. Yum Brands has more than 50,000 restaurants in more than 150 countries and territories, including fast-casual restaurant concept The Habit Burger Grill.