Sunday, a company that provides a QR code-based checkout system for restaurants, has raised $21 million to help accelerate growth.
Atlanta-based Sunday emerged in 2021 with a head-turning $24 million seed fundraise, followed by a $100 million Series A round later that year.
At the time, its core product was a system that allowed customers to pay their bills by scanning a QR code on the table. It was designed to make payment faster, easier and less labor-intensive.
Sunday has spent the intervening years growing its customer base, tripling in size over the past 12 months alone. Today, it works with 3,500 restaurants including groups like Lettuce Entertain You and Tao Group.
It has also been developing more features on top of the basic payment software. The product now includes Google reviews, improved tipping and a trove of data for restaurants to use.
“That’s probably the biggest difference,” said Sunday co-founder and U.S. CEO Christine de Wendel in an interview. “Because we’re getting table-level, server-level and guest-level data and reviews … we’re able now to take that and repackage it and provide it to our restaurant partners.”
Restaurants can then use that data to track repeat customers, see what dishes are selling best, and inform scheduling and staffing decisions.
A lot of that data comes from Sunday’s new review flow. After a customer scans and pays, they’re asked to rate their experience on a scale of 0-5, followed by a series of other questions about their meal. Eighty-five percent of customers leave a review, de Wendel said.
Sunday’s self-service payment model also helps speed table turns, saving 12 minutes per transaction, on average, and generates higher revenue and tips, the company said.
QR codes have had a roller-coaster history. After usage exploded during the pandemic, consumers and restaurants seemed to cool on them as life returned to normal. But Sunday has found a strong market for them, even in higher-end restaurants.
“Consumers love them if they look good,” de Wendel said, adding that the company works hard to make their QR codes “beautiful” with attractive tabletop placards.
The tricky part, she said, can be convincing operators to put one on the table. Usually, providing a list of the many restaurants that use Sunday is enough to get around those objections, she said.
With its latest fundraise, Sunday plans to build out sales and operations teams in new markets, including Los Angeles, Austin, Phoenix and Nashville. And it will continue to improve its products and add more integrations with loyalty, POS and CRM systems.
It’s also working on kiosks for fast casuals and a dedicated product for Michelin-starred and James Beard-award-winning restaurants.
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