Southeast Asian tech startup StoreHub has raised $13.5 million in new funding to ramp up support to restaurants and retailers in the Philippines and the rest of the ASEAN region seeking to automate and grow their businesses.

The company said Wednesday that the pre-Series B funding round was led by 500 Global with participation from existing investors Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, OSK, and others.

"With 'revenge travel' and 'revenge dining', retail and F&B business owners are looking for ways to improve operational efficiency and maximize their revenue per customer. StoreHub enables business owners to make more money and get more time for their families, or to expand even more," StoreHub CEO and Co-Founder Wai Hong Fong said.

The latest funding round will be used to continue fueling healthy growth and technology innovation to deepen the value of each customer.

"We joined their first round in 2016, with a small $150,000 check. Fast forward to today, we have invested more than $10 million cumulatively on top of that," Khailee Ng, Managing Partner at 500 Global, said.

Locally, StoreHub has been the partner of many restaurants, cafes, and retail stores to successfully automate their operations. It is one of the few point-of-sale system providers accredited by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

Since its launch, StoreHub has served a wide range of SME merchants in the Philippines alone, ranging from multistore cafes like Coffee Academics and Tender Loving Cakes to restaurants like Wagyu Studio and Kondwi.

StoreHub currently powers over 15,000 paying retail and restaurant outlets in Southeast Asia and has expanded its offering to include QR-based table ordering, loyalty, automated customer engagement, and more.

Within the last 12 months, StoreHub has processed over 128 million transactions worth over $1.6 billion in Gross Transaction Volume, a 40-percent increase over the previous year and a sign of the resurgent times.