Task Retail/xchangepoint POS — bank compatibility

Task Retail/xchangepoint is a point-of-sale system for cafes, hospitality and quick service. Started in a family garage in 2000, ended up running Starbucks and McDonald's transactions, and was bought by a New York listed company for about $310 million.

Tyro only. Tyro is its own middleware and its own acquirer, so this one comes with the bank attached — moving bank means a new integration.

The integration covers cash out.

Kym and Jennifer Houden founded Task Retail in 2000, starting from the family garage and self-funding the whole way. Their son Daniel joined as a developer, became CTO and then CEO; his brother Dean co-led the platform's development. By 2009 Task was running 1,300-plus stores in Australia and over a million retail transactions a day out of a $1 million Sydney support centre, with franchise groups like Muffin Break, Donut King and Brumby's on it. By 2014 it was a $10 million, 40-staff business.

The listing came sideways. Plexure Group (NZX/ASX: PX1), a New Zealand mobile engagement company whose largest client was McDonald's, acquired Task Retail for A$120 million — A$30m cash plus A$78.5m in new shares — completing 3 October 2021, with Task's vendors and staff ending up holding around 42.9% of the combined company. Plexure then renamed itself TASK Group Holdings on 18 October 2022, switched the ticker to TSK and moved its primary listing to the ASX.

It did not stay independent. PAR Technology Corporation (NYSE: PAR) took TASK by scheme of arrangement for roughly A$310 million — about US$131.5 million cash plus 2,163,393 PAR shares — with the scheme implemented on 19 July 2024 and TSK delisted. The named users of the transaction platform at closing were Starbucks and Guzman y Gomez; McDonald's uses the loyalty platform across 65 markets. Australian venue work includes Accor Stadium, CommBank Stadium, SkyStadium and a Bakers Delight rollout across 500-plus bakeries.