Posted on 04/14/2021 8:43:45 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The round included existing investors as well as the former CEO and COO of Twitter.
Fast-growing pizza tech platform Slice has raised $40 million from existing investors as well as two former Twitter executives.
The Series D round was led by Cross Creek, with contributions from KKR, GGV Capital and Primary Ventures. But the highlight was the addition of former Twitter CEO Dick Costilo and COO Adam Bain through their 01 Advisors venture.
“We are so grateful to Cross Creek for leading this round and giving us the opportunity to bring on the 01 team as we enter this next stage of growth and continue to double down on our mission,” Slice CEO Ilir Sela said in a statement.
The round is a vote of confidence from Cross Creek, which focuses on companies with large addressable markets and "IPO-capable management teams." A Slice spokesperson said the company had no plans yet for a public offering.
It follows a $43 million Series C fundraise last May. Slice has raised $125 million to date, according to CrunchBase.
It will use the funds to continue developing its platform for independent pizzerias, which includes marketing, delivery optimization, branded websites and most recently a POS system designed specifically for pizza shops. Its goal is to equip mom-and-pop pizza shops with the same tools used by big chains like Domino's.
"Slice has emerged as the leader in powering these types of small businesses that have been serving our communities for decades,” Bain said in a statement. “We look forward to working with Ilir and the incredible team at Slice to marry our significant operating and business-scaling experience with Slice's focus on enabling economic growth in this category."
Slice works with more than 15,000 pizzerias in 3,000 cities.
Restaurant payment startup Sunday launched Wednesday on the heels of a massive $24 million seed round with the goal of making it easier for diners to pay the bill.
Its QR code-based platform is designed to allow guests to check out at their leisure in as little as 10 seconds and free up staff to focus on other things. It also promises higher tips and check averages, lower transaction fees and faster table turns.
Emboldened by high customer adoption rates, the Atlanta-based company has its sights on becoming a global business-to-consumer company along the lines of PayPal or Venmo, said co-founder and U.S. CEO Christine de Wendel.
The product is fairly simple: Guests can use their smartphone to scan a QR code at their table and pay whenever they want, with options to split the bill and tip. Payments are processed by Stripe, and Sunday currently integrates with most of the big POS providers including Micros, Brink and Square.
It's not new technology, but de Wendel said Sunday's foundation in restaurant operations and its simplicity set it apart from similar products.
"What we’ve observed is that there is no solution out there that’s getting 94% adoption and that’s so easy to use," she said in an interview.
The idea was hatched early in the pandemic by Tigrane Seydoux and Victor Lugger of Big Mamma Group, a large European operator of Italian restaurants, to reduce touchpoints and ease the payment process. They partnered with de Wendel, who has experience scaling tech companies, to launch Sunday as its own venture. It's in use in 1,300 restaurants in Europe.
Sunday is currently letting restaurants sign up for free, but it will eventually charge commissions on each transaction, de Wendel said. Its agreement with Stripe has allowed it to reduce processing fees for restaurants by an average of 0.5%, she said, and it is negotiating with payment providers for better rates as well.
Tech investor Coatue led the seed round, which de Wendel said is the largest ever in the restaurant technology space. New York-based Coatue has invested in DoorDash, Instacart and other large tech companies.
"We have the ambition to have hundreds of millions of customers long-term, so we need to grow quickly and we need to scale so you really are a solution that you can find everywhere," de Wendel said of the big fundraise.
Sunday's top priorities now are adding POS integrations and getting more restaurants on board. It's focusing on dine-in restaurants, but "once we do become a go-to B2C brand, of course it’ll work in quick-serve as well," de Wendel said.
Chick-fil-A is testing robot delivery in California under a new partnership with robotics company Kiwibot.
Up to three locations in the Santa Monica area are now offering customers the option of having their food brought to them by one of Kiwibot's semi-autonomous, four-wheeled rovers, said Kiwibot COO Diego Varela Prada.
The chain is keenly interested to see the bot's impact on the customer experience, Prada said.
"It’s too early to say where that’s going to end up, but we’re hopeful that we are going to be deploying with them a number of locations later this year or into next year," he said.
Other benefits of the bots include faster and cheaper delivery as well as a smaller carbon footprint.
"What we promise is to at least halve the time it takes for all orders a mile or closer, and more than half the cost" of the average delivery, Prada said. The average delivery takes 30 minutes and costs $1.99, the company said.
Chick-fil-A will be using the latest version of the robot, which features upgraded cameras, lights and other features designed to enhance the customer experience, such as the ability to "wink." The machines are not yet fully autonomous--human supervisors monitor them remotely to help them do things like cross the street, for instance.
The Chick-fil-A news is part of a broader growth push unveiled Tuesday by Kiwibot. It is working with electric scooter company Segway to help it develop and scale its technology, and next month it will launch a delivery partnership with Shopify in Los Angeles, San Jose, Miami, Pittsburgh and Detroit. It's also working on other restaurant partnerships, Prada said. Kiwibot was founded in 2017 and has completed 150,000 food deliveries.
Robotic food delivery has been picking up steam recently. On Monday, Domino's announced a partnership with self-driving delivery service Nuro in Houston, and Reef Technology is using Cartken robots to deliver from its ghost kitchens in Miami. And last month, Chipotle Mexican Grill invested in Nuro.
So, it’s a tip calculator? A bill splitter? Folks have done this for years without help. Usually it’s “Here, I’ll get the check. You can throw in a few dollars for a tip if you like.” Glad they finally automated it.
this willard says its calculating the tip on a pilla...
With the dumbed down math now taught in school, more people need these automatic calculators.
If former Twitter employees are involved, it’s a bad investment.
I was once at a table where we sat there for an hour figuring out the bill split. My position is there was an engineer and a math teacher... they should figure it out.
QR codes are 2016.
Up to three locations in the Santa Monica area are now offering customers the option of having their food brought to them by one of Kiwibot's semi-autonomous, four-wheeled rovers"
This is interesting until someone is killed for their 4-pack of tough tenders with Polynesian sauce. Which will happen as surely as their patron saint Patrice Cullors buying that Bahamanian hideaway she was exposed for.
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