Restaurant tech supplier Toast has acquired Sling, a staff scheduling and communication app, as it looks to help customers better manage their workforce.
Sling adds another layer to Toast’s Payroll & Team Management suite, which has tools for onboarding, payroll, tip pooling and now scheduling.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The acquisition comes as restaurants continue to navigate a difficult labor environment. Many operations are short-staffed and looking for ways to make workers more efficient and more likely to stick around.
“Our customers will benefit from the ability to simplify communication across their team, control their labor costs and efficiently manage their teams through one integrated platform,” said Aman Narang, Toast co-founder and COO, in a statement. “We're delighted to welcome the Sling team to the Toast family.”
New York-based Sling allows businesses to quickly build schedules and manage overtime, labor costs and scheduling conflicts. It also allows employees to sign up for shifts themselves.
It also has a messaging tool that allows staff to communicate individually or in groups.
Clients include restaurants as well as other businesses, including retailers, movie theaters and hospitals.
“This is a great milestone for all the Sling employees who have helped us grow into a robust solution over the past seven years,” said Helgi Hermannsson, Sling CEO and founder, in a statement. “We're excited to continue innovating on restaurant employee experience as part of Toast.”
Toast and Sling have been integrated since April 2021, but the acquisition will make Sling a standard part of Toast. The company said that it has seen “strong adoption” of Sling since the integration.
Boston-based Toast offers a wide range of software and hardware for restaurants, including POS, online ordering, marketing and tablets. It bills itself as an “all-in-one” tech platform for small restaurant operations.
Sling marks the company’s second acquisition in the past year and first since going public in September 2021. It acquired back-office software company xtraChef last June.
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