Reservation and booking platform Tock secured a $10-million investment round as it pivoted from in-person operations to off-premises enabler to help restaurants provide takeout and curbside meals. When COVID-19 hit, the restaurant industry came to a screeching halt, especially places where you need to reserve a table. Prior to the pandemic, that was the core function of Tock. The company served as a reservation, event booking and hospitality tool provider for about 3,000 restaurants and wineries before the pandemic hit. It had booked nearly $1 billion in payments for client […]
Slice, a technology provider for independent pizza restaurants, secured a significant round of funding as it helps client businesses power through the pandemic. Pizza has been a big winner during the COVID-19 pandemic, Domino’s reported a 7.1 percent increase in same-store sales early on during the crisis. The mega chain, however, benefits from a massive tech budget and exceptional branding. The neighborhood pizzeria, however, just can’t compete with a technology stack like that. And that’s where Slice comes in. The company was built to help smaller pizza chains and mom-and […]
After hiring an advisor and considering a sale of the company back in January, Grubhub, the second-largest U.S. restaurant delivery provider, is said to be in talks with Uber, which has reportedly offered to acquire the Chicago-based company in an all-stock transaction. If the transaction goes through, the combined entity would be the largest food delivery player in the United States. Originally reported by The Wall Street Journal, its report said Uber first approached Grubhub in February “with an all-stock takeover offer, and the companies have been in talks since […]
Mercatus, a digital engagement provider that builds mobile apps and websites for grocery retailers, says the near-instant move to curbside and delivery at grocery stores has created major challenges for the industry that mirror the restaurant delivery space: limited staffing, a strained supply chain and tension between stores and national delivery providers like Instacart that are straining under the stress of a newly digitized grocery business. Mercatus President and CEO Sylvain Perrier said it’s “reasonable to think” that a portion of independent grocers could be forced to close, whether that’s […]
ChowNow, one of several companies helping restaurants generate and fulfill their own in-house delivery orders, has rolled out a loyalty membership program that it says can help independent restaurants remain profitable as takeout and delivery remains the mainstay of the dining scene as state- and city-wide lockdowns persist. With its new loyalty program, ChowNow is giving restaurants tools similar to those employed by the large, successful restaurant brands that incentivize loyalty guests to increase frequency and overall spend through personalized mobile apps. At the top end of the food chain, […]
Ono Foods Co., the “full-stack food automation platform,” has signed on an industry heavy hitter to help drive new automated restaurant solutions. The company announced that Derek Pietz has joined as vice president of automation. While he might not be a household name, Pietz was formerly the head of automation at Sweetgreen, leading the digitally focused company’s automation efforts. Before that, he founded an engineering firm that helped companies including Tesla, SpaceX and Apple, automate industrial processes. He also helped out with viral foodservice company, Café X. Pietz said Ono’s […]
New market share data gives a little insight into who’s winning during the global COVID-19 pandemic. It may come as no surprise that U.S. delivery leader DoorDash is, so far, coming out on top. In a new look at more than 190,000 transactions through April, Edison Trends showed off the recent market share snapshot. In essence, the trends continued a lot like they were before (as seen in May of 2019 and in February of 2020), perhaps magnified slightly by the pandemic. As more people tried delivery for the first […]
Less than nine months after appointing former Arby’s President Rob Lynch as its new president and CEO, Papa John’s posted system-wide sales growth of 5.3 percent during the first quarter of 2020, the brand’s best results since company founder John Schnatter resigned as CEO in late 2017. Getting more granular about its results amid the pandemic, Papa John’s broke down its comparable sales results over four periods: Dec. 30, 2019 to Jan. 26, 2020; Jan. 27 to Feb. 23; Feb. 24 to March 29; and March 30 through April 26. […]
A delivery-focused upstart out of New York City claims it has cracked the code to get restaurants the details of who is ordering their food via third-party delivery services, and it’s building a business on helping restaurants market directly to Grubhub, DoorDash, Uber Eats and Postmates customers who order through those popular apps. The company, Bikky, aims to improve the economics for the restaurant industry at a time when there are no financial squares to spare. CEO Abhinav Kapur founded Bikky in 2017 after years of working on Wall Street […]
As cracks emerge in the global food supply chain, an upstart called Pepper Pantry is giving at-home consumers the ability to order produce, meat, seafood and dry goods directly from smaller, family-run restaurant supply companies. Launched in New York City just before the COVID-19 pandemic and led by a small team with deep ties to Uber Eats, the new service is expanding quickly while spreading awareness that independent suppliers are hurting just like restaurants. The promise of Pepper Pantry is certainly appealing during this time of zombie-apocalypse grocery shopping, sold […]
