Tech Check is a regular column on restaurant technology by Senior Editor Joe Guszkowski. It's also a newsletter.
What got into restaurant technology this week?
Maybe it was Monday’s solar eclipse, the arrival of spring or the upcoming slate of trade shows (including our very own Restaurant Leadership Conference) that had tech firms feeling frisky.
Whatever it was, a lot happened over the past seven days. We had fundraises, acquisitions, new product launches and even a good old-fashioned executive poaching.
Here’s what happened and what it means.
VC warms up to restaurant tech again
It has been a difficult few years for tech startups. After the boom times of 2020 and 2021, venture capital largely dried up as interest rates rose and growth slowed.
But things are starting to loosen a little. Not one, not two, but three restaurant tech companies raised money this week: Kiosk ordering provider Bite ($9 million), dynamic pricing startup Juicer ($5.3 million) and delivery app Delivery Collective ($3.8 million).
The figures are much more modest than the jaw-dropping numbers we saw a few years ago. But they’re arguably more meaningful, because we know investors are being more judicious about where they place their bets. Three cheers for thoughtful growth.
Unified commerce stays hot
“Unified commerce” is my early favorite for restaurant buzzword of the year. In case you’re not familiar, it refers to the strategy of integrating the tech stack from front to back, with the goal of centralizing data and giving the customer a more seamless experience.
One of the most high-profile providers of this form of technology is Qu, the cloud-based, Danny Meyer-approved POS company that has helped put “unified commerce” on the industry’s radar.
The company made a splash earlier this year when it was named the new POS provider for GoTo Foods (fka Focus Brands). It landed another big client Thursday in Jack in the Box and Del Taco, which plan to use Qu as the foundation for a digital-forward future at their more than 2,800 restaurants.
“Our digital roadmap includes constant innovation and multiple upgrades, but none of it’s achievable without Qu’s commerce platform,” said Jack in the Box CTO Doug Cook in a statement.
As the hum around unified commerce grows, other tech providers are looking to get in on the action. This week, the San Francisco-based restaurant tech provider Posist rebranded as Restroworks, saying in a statement that the new identity “reflects the company's transformation since its inception in 2012 from a Point of Sale (POS) provider to a unified technology platform” (emphasis ours).
All eyes on enterprise
The competition among tech firms for contracts with the biggest of the big chains is heating up.
Three major players this week made moves intended to catch the attention of enterprise customers. Maybe the boldest came from online ordering provider Lunchbox, which put out a press release proclaiming that it had poached two leaders from rival ItsaCheckmate.
Zach Colon, Checkmate’s VP of software engineering, is Lunchbox’s new CTO, and Brett Jones, Checkmate’s VP of product, is now Lunchbox’s VP of product.
Lunchbox framed the new hires as part of an ongoing push for bigger chains. "As we're looking to work and build alongside upmarket logos, we have to support that by bringing in an unmatched level of enterprise expertise,” co-founder and CEO Nabeel Alamgir said in a statement.
Not to be outdone, ItsaCheckmate itself unveiled a new enterprise-grade menu management tool. It’s designed to help chains more easily adjust and manage menus across multiple locations. Checkmate called it “never-before-seen” technology.
And then there was Toast, the tech supplier to countless mom-and-pops that has been forging a path upmarket in recent years. The Boston-based behemoth’s new Restaurant Management Suite has all sorts of features for chains, including advanced analytics, multi-location menu management (there’s that phrase again) and a benchmarking tool that allows operators to compare their results with competitors in the aggregate.
While the product is geared toward chains, Toast said restaurants of any size can use it.
Consolidation continues
I wrote last week that tech M&A was starting to heat up, with at least six deals announced in the first quarter. After this week, we’re now up to at least eight on the year as tech firms continue to bring more capabilities in-house.
Back-office software supplier Restaurant365 acquired ExpandShare, a learning management system that will allow 365 to offer restaurants an employee training option for the first time.
News also emerged that the fast-growing food hall startup Wonder has acquired delivery provider Relay after a year of working together. Wonder will integrate Relay’s technology and courier network into its operations as it looks to expand throughout the Northeast. Nothing will change for Relay’s existing restaurant partners.
The acquisition was first reported by Eater and confirmed by Restaurant Business.