Toast, the restaurant-management platform, announced Monday that it raised $250 million in Series E funding. The funds, led by TCV and Tiger Global Management, along with existing investors, puts its valuation at $2.7 billion.
“At TCV, we invest in companies that have the potential to reshape the entire industry,” said David Yuan, general partner at TCV, in a statement. “Our investment will enable Toast to extend their platform beyond point-of-sale and guest-facing technology, and in doing so, create a powerful SaaS platform with a superlative business model.”
Toast currently powers “tens of thousands” of restaurants, including brands such as Joe Coffee Company, Eggs Up Grill and Jose Andres’ ThinkFoodGroup. The company increased revenue 148% in 2018 and more than doubled the number of brands that use it.
Over the past year, Toast has launched a number of new solutions to the market, CFO and Chief Business Officer Tim Barash told Restaurant Business. That includes Toast Go, a mobile POS handheld build for the restaurant industry. “Today, one out of every two new customers elect to deploy Toast Go to reduce turn times and increase revenue,” Barash says.
The company also introduced Toast Guest Feedback, a platform that collects real-time guest feedback via Toast Go or digital receipts, earlier this year.
The company plans to invest $1 billion in research and development over the next five years, the release said. Specifically, it will build hardware and software specifically for the restaurant industry to help with guest engagement and retention, workforce recruitment and retention and operations improvements that will drive profitability.
Toast launched in 2013. It now is a platform that combines restaurant POS, front of house, back of house and guest-facing technologies.