Australian shopping start ups, Posse and Beat the Q, have merged, with plans to create the “Uber or AirBnB of shopping”.

The merged business will have half a million users, 56,000 shop relationships, and handle more than 400,000 transactions per month.

Beat the Q, a pre-ordering app for consumers and cafes, is used by more than 450 businesses and 65,000 customers.

Posse, which helps people find recommended shops around them, is signing up more than 1000 merchants per week from all over the world and has developed a scalable network of shop owners and shoppers who communicate with each other through the platform. Of the 56,000 shops on Posse, 15,000 are in Asia.

The two start ups have raised a combined $5 million to date from investors including Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Bill Tai; Lars Rasmussen, Facebook engineer and co-founder of Google Maps; Simon Rothman, partner at Greylock Partners and former top eBay executive; Greg Wilkinson, founder of Reckon Software; Alex Harvey, global head principal investments at Macquarie Group; and James Spencely, founder of Vocus Communications.

Rebekah Campbell, founder of Posse, said the goal was to create the Uber or AirBNB of shopping.

“Using AirBNB is a very different experience to something like the ‘Stayz’ website – you get to see who owns the place, communicate with them, and build a relationship,” Campbell said.

“Our vision is to bring the same connection to shopping. We bring shop owners and shoppers together. We’ll facilitate a seamless ordering and payment experience and we help the people on both sides of the transaction get to know each other through private messaging, recommendations, loyalty, and rewards.”

Beat the Q, founded by Adam Theobald, acquired loyalty app, e-Coffee Card, in March this year.

The combined business is considering further acquisitions as the market consolidates.

The company will release a new product within weeks which includes the best of all three apps (Posse, Beat the Q, and e-Coffee Card).