Lavu
“Can a restaurant POS company become the full financial operating system for independent restaurant operators by stacking embedded payments, capital, and payroll on its platform?”
Founded2010
HQAlbuquerque, NM (historically); Tampa, FL (recent press)
FoundersAndy Lim
Total raised$15M+
Latest roundSeries A, 2015
IndustryVertical SaaS / Restaurants
The story
Founded as an iPad POS company for independent restaurants, Lavu bootstrapped early growth internationally before raising institutional capital in 2015. Over the following years it expanded beyond hardware-centric POS into payments (Lavu Pay), online ordering (MenuDrive), and capital access (Lavu Capital via Parafin). The 2024 Check-powered payroll launch signals a deliberate move to become an all-in-one financial operating system for independent restaurant operators, stacking embedded finance layers — payments, lending, and payroll — on top of the POS core.
Product timeline
2010
Founded as an iPad-centric POS system for restaurants, bootstrapped to profitability within two months.· pivot
2015
Raised $15M Series A led by Aldrich Capital Partners to scale sales and marketing; used by 4,000+ restaurants in 86 countries.· banking
2022
Launched Lavu Capital, a merchant cash advance product powered by Parafin, embedded directly in the Lavu dashboard.· lending
2024
Launched Lavu Payroll, a fully integrated payroll solution powered by Check (CheckHQ), offered at no extra cost to customers.· banking
The stack
5 layers disclosed in Lavu’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Lavu Pay (self-operated)
Lending
in the full report
Payroll
in the full report
Sponsor bank
in the full report
Accounting
in the full report
Accounting gap: minor
6 more providers across 4 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.