REDWOOD CITY, Calif.- Presto, the leading enterprise front-office software platform for the $900B hospitality industry, today announced $30M in growth funding led by Recruit Holdings and Romulus Capital with participation from I2BF Global Ventures, EG Capital and Brainchild Holdings.
Presto provides a cutting-edge technology suite to top foodservice and hospitality chains that expands operating profits by speeding consumer experiences and improving labor productivity. With national unemployment rates at record lows, restaurants struggle to retain and afford workers who have many options like Lyft or Instacart, and also are challenged to eliminate key friction points in their consumer experiences.
The funding will be invested directly into growth of the Presto platform, which currently includes:
- Presto Wearable for instant notification of real-time guest concerns or operational issues. It saves time for the staff and speeds up the experience for consumers.
- Presto A.I. leverages machine learning to accurately forecast labor staffing requirements so restaurants are not over or under-staffed on any given shift. PrestoPrime Tabletop allows guests to order and pay from their seats without waiting as well as access games and other entertainment content.
“Restaurants serve billions of consumers and are a critical part of our economy, and yet have typically been underserved by world-class technology,” said Rajat Suri, Founder and CEO of Presto. “Less than 1% of restaurants globally currently use technology to optimize their front-office. These funds will be leveraged to support our rapid growth, and expand our products and services to our partners in the restaurant industry.”
Both IoT and A.I. have been taking brick-and-mortar industries by storm recently as the industry looks to compete with the speed and convenience of e-commerce. McDonald’s has announced a rollout of their own self-service kiosk products that boost average checks by as much as 15 percent or more. Amazon Go and its clones have created a brand new frictionless checkout experience. And Applebee’s rolled out PrestoPrime Tabletop devices that allow guests to order, pay and entertain themselves at the table without having to wait.
“The brick-and-mortar industry is truly a massive one, with massive problems, and we are thrilled to begin a new relationship with Presto who is tackling these problems,” commented Mizuho Hiraguri, VP of Corporate Development at Recruit Co., Ltd., the largest service provider to local businesses in Japan, an operating company of Recruit Holdings which is also owners of Indeed and Glassdoor in the US. “The shortage of labor in developed countries is already acute, and will only get worse. Presto will help address this problem with its world-class technology.”
About Presto
Founded in 2008 out of MIT and now based in Silicon Valley, Presto is dramatically transforming an age-old industry with its enterprise front-office technology platform. In addition to tabletop PrestoPrime EMV terminals, the leading guest order and payment solution, the Presto platform includes cutting-edge server handheld assistants, wearable devices for real-time alerts and Presto artificial intelligence (A.I.) products. Presto’s comprehensive FOH platform helps restaurants succeed by delivering critical operating insights, maximizing staff productivity and improving the guest experience. Presto works with 10 out of the top 20 restaurant chains in the U.S. To learn more, visit www.presto.com.
