Technology

Toast significantly ups its IPO goals

The restaurant software provider now seeks to raise as much as $717 million in its initial public offering, up from the $100 million stated in its original filing.
Toast hardware
Photo courtesy of Toast

Restaurant software giant Toast is significantly upping its IPO goals.

Late last month, the Boston-based technology company filed plans to raise $100 million in its initial public offering. Early this week, Toast submitted a revised filing, now saying it intends to raise as much as $717 million by selling 21.7 million Class A shares at $30 to $33 each.

Toast was founded in 2011 with the fairly modest mission of creating a mobile payment app for restaurants. But it has since expanded its services to become the Swiss Army knife of restaurant tech, offering marketing software, point of sale systems, kitchen displays and delivery services. It rolled out a number of new offerings during the pandemic, going from 27,000 restaurant clients in 2019 to 48,000 locations today, according to its prospectus.

Toast received $400 million in funding just before the pandemic hit, in February 2020.

“As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen a big shift in dining behavior and an acceleration in technology adoption,” Toast said in its filing.

The company is slated to begin trading under the ticker symbol TOST starting Monday.

Toast’s IPO is the second for a restaurant technology company this year. In March, software provider Olo announced its go-public plans.

There has been a tsunami of money flowing in the restaurant tech sector in recent months, with nearly $3.5 billion coming to a variety of companies via investments, acquisitions and IPOs since the beginning of the year.  

The off-premise push created by the pandemic bolstered Toast’s business, with the company generating $494 million in annual recurring revenue, an increase of 118% year over year, as of the end of June.

But it hasn’t been enough to make the company profitable. Despite the fast growth, Toast has lost money in each of the past three years. It lost $209 million in 2019 and $248 million in 2020, and had lost $235 million over the six months ending June 30, 2021.

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