Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut parent, Yum! Brands Inc., has completed a binding agreement to acquire the Australian-based foodservice tech provider, Dragontail Systems Limited through a share scheme of arrangement under Australian corporate law, a news release said.

Yum Brands said successful completion of the more than $72.4 million deal will give the Louisville, Kentucky-based QSR company the ability to scale Dragontail's AI kitchen order management and delivery technology globally.

Dragontail's platform focuses on optimizing and managing the entire food preparation process from order through delivery. Its AI-based solution automates restaurant kitchen flow, along with dispatching delivery drivers. Yum said the technology can also operate with outside food delivery partners, while the tech provider also provides consumer-facing capabilities allowing customers to track orders.

"With Dragontail, we expect to tap into 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," Yum Brands CFO Chris Turner said in the release.

Dragontail's platform is currently deployed across nearly 1,500 Pizza Hut restaurants in over 10 countries. If the today's announced deal is successfully implemented, Yum! Brands plans to scale and offer Dragontail's platform to its brands around the world over time. In addition to its kitchen order management and delivery technology, Yum's purchase of Dragontail would also bring other Dragontail emerging technologies in-house, the companies said.

"Yum! Brands and Dragontail have been working in a fruitful collaboration for years," Dragontail's Managing Director Ido Levanon said in the release. "Dragontail's board of directors fully supports this transaction, which it considers to be an attractive opportunity for its shareholders. It will also provide Yum Brands with innovative technology. The activities of Dragontail and Yum! Brands are complementary, the synergy is natural and we bless the completion of the acquisition."

If the acquisition is completed it will be Yum Brands' third technology acquisition this year, following the acquisition of AI-based consumer insights and marketing performance analytics company, Kvantum Inc., in March as well as omnichannel ordering and marketing platform provider Tictuk Technologies.

The deal is conditional on Australian Federal Court approval and approval by Dragontail shareholders and certain other regulatory waivers and rulings, among other factors, though Yum said it hopes to close the acquisition by the end of the third quarter this year in an all-cash transaction. Yum Brands has more than 50,000 restaurants in over 150 countries and territories, and also includes The Habit Burger Grill fast-casual restaurant concept.

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