A survey of 500 restaurants and 1,000 consumers released in February found that 62% of restaurant revenues in 2021 are expected to come through online channels. In addition, the survey, conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of payments provider Square (NYSE: SQ), found that 75% of restaurants plan to offer contactless ordering and payment options, with 61% of those utilizing on-premise payment systems.
Digital orders to restaurants in the U.S. rose 145% in December 2020 compared to December 2019, according to separate research by NPD Group.
The result is a complicated web of ordering and payment systems for restaurant managers.
Foodetective, which is used throughout Europe and will soon be made available in the U.S., is out to change this. The company’s platform and customer interface allow restaurants to seamlessly connect their various software systems into a single, integrated solution.
The company on Wednesday announced $2 million in seed funding and the introduction of its new API and interface. Based in Geneva and in Paris, the round includes funding from angel investors Serge Schoen, Filippo Catalano, Imai Jen La Plante and Charles Lorenceau.
“Today’s restaurants easily use more than a dozen different apps to manage their daily operations and there is no universal operating system to simplify the process,” Andrea Tassistro, founder and CEO of Foodetective, said. “Centralizing all of the heavy tech and API architectures used by the industry requires time, expense and a technical team — things that many restaurants simply do not have. At Foodetective we’re proposing a fresh vision on how restaurants can manage their technology.”
Restaurants typically deploy technology solutions around traditional delivery and takeout models, click-and-collect models, reservations, bookings and more. Those systems are often not integrated with each other and therefore absorb more time and cost than necessary to carry out these tasks, the company explained in a recent Medium post.
“For instance, many restaurants employ multiple solutions to take orders from different delivery platforms. Enabling greater efficiency and seamless connectivity between front-of-house and back-of-house systems, a restaurant can simplify their tasks and maximize output,” it wrote. “Foodetective’s platform provides a dedicated dashboard, pulling all forms of data from the restaurant’s tech stack to create greater efficiencies in operations.”
Foodetective is now integrating services from more than 300 vendor partners and point-of-sale providers including Square, Uber Eats, Stripe and Orkestro. Its dashboard allows restaurants to integrate their various technologies into a single dashboard and access all of their digital subscriptions through a single app manager.
Foodetective’s platform currently hosts more than 17,500 businesses (restaurants, bars, and food and beverage companies) across Europe. In the U.S., Foodetective will soon be available through its global partners and wholesalers, it said.
Foodetective’s technology is plug and play. Its additional solutions offered on the platform include reservations, delivery, HR, social media, logistics, waste management, community management, stock management, recruiting, finances, wholesalers and point of sale.
The platform is designed for large enterprises as well as small and midsized businesses that are beyond the “pen-and-paper” stage of managing. It is available both as a freemium service with commission or as a monthly subscription. With the monthly service, there are no additional fees on any transactions.
Click for more FreightWaves articles by Brian Straight.
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