Tock, the restaurant reservation platform that moved into carryout and events, has been acquired by website and ecommerce platform Squarespace in a $400 million mix of cash and stock. Squarespace said bringing Tock under its umbrella will enable its customers to integrate reservations with marketing and direct guest connections.
“Ecommerce within the restaurant and hospitality industries is a large and growing market opportunity,” said Anthony Casalena, Squarespace founder and CEO. “I’ve long admired Tock’s vision to reimagine how reservation-based businesses connect with their customers. We believe that together we will continue building on their success, bringing Tock’s capabilities to our all-in-one product suite in service of our customers.”
Tock Founder and CEO Nick Kokonas, who was a keynote speaker at the 2020 Food On Demand Conference, will retain his title as part of the deal.
“Squarespace and Tock have a shared mission of elevating and enabling our customers’ success and passion,” he said. “Combining Tock’s unified platform and years of hospitality industry expertise with Squarespace’s reach, resources, and design-forward products, in our view, creates an opportunity to deliver a best-in-class solution to millions of entrepreneurs and small businesses around the world.”
Launched in 2014 by Kokonas, who is also the co-owner and co-founder of Chicago-based Alinea Group, Tock powers reservations, table management, carryout operations and events for more than 7,000 hospitality operators ranging from neighborhood pizzerias to Michelin-starred destinations, wineries, and pop-ups in 30 countries.
To date, Tock has processed more than $1B “prepaid experiences” in addition to millions of standard reservations across 200 cities around the world. Named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in 2021, Tock launched Tock to Go in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to allow restaurants to schedule takeout orders themselves instead of linking to delivery services.
The acquisition of Tock follows Squarespace’s acquisitions in 2019 of Acuity Scheduling, the online appointment scheduling platform, and Unfold, an app that helps anyone create elevated and engaging stories for social media.
