CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tock, the premier restaurant and winery booking system, today announced an oversubscribed $10 million financing led by Valor Siren Ventures with participation from Origin Ventures.
“We were impressed with Tock’s system, innovations, and rapidly expanding raving-fan customer base throughout 2019,” said Valor Siren Ventures fund manager, and Tock board member Jon Shulkin, “but we were blown away by its rapid development and deployment of Tock to Go amidst this terrible pandemic. Tock revealed its true grit and entrepreneurial spirit, and is helping thousands of restaurants build a bridge to the future. As restaurants slowly begin to reopen, the combination of Tock’s reservations, events, CRM, and carryout functions on a single affordable platform is game changing for the industry.”
Tock’s core business of reservations, event bookings, and intelligent hospitality tools served nearly 3,000 restaurants, wineries, and pop-ups across 28 countries in over 200 cities as of February. But as Covid-19 struck the vast majority of those businesses were forced to close. Tock’s cloud based platform, flexible data structures, and best in class hospitality features enabled the rapid design, build, and deployment of Tock to Go -- built to help restaurants offer pickup and delivery. In April alone Tock added nearly 1,000 new restaurants, allowing them to offer elevated carryout menus and delivery service to millions of Tock diners while safely reemploying their staff. Tock charges a flat 3% for this service, compared to over 25% for many third party delivery apps.
“Tock’s mission has never waivered,” said CEO Nick Kokonas. “We always focus on empowering restaurants to have a better, direct connection with their customers. In doing so we help them provide superior hospitality, increase their sales, and streamline their operations. While we never expected a crisis like this, we know that what worked so well in good times is now critical. Our work has always been rewarding because we love the hospitality industry. Now it is truly important.”
To date Tock has seated tens of millions of guests, booked nearly $1 billion of pre-paid reservations, deposits, and events, and has already enabled the service of 1 million To Go meals. As restaurants begin to reopen, Tock will continue to create tools that restaurants need to resume operations, including contactless payment, dual dine-in and carryout service operations, data-driven hospitality reporting, and marketing integrations. Tock is the only system that provides reservation management capacity controls and the ability to offer pickup and/or delivery orders on one unified platform.
“Tock is doing well by doing good for the industry,” said Origin’s Jason Heltzer, a Tock board member. “This is an investment not only in Tock, but in the future of the restaurant industry -- one that we believe will rebound because it is so tied to our collective culture.”
About Tock:
Launched in December 2014, Tock powers reservation, table management, and carryout operations for nearly 3,000 restaurants ranging from neighborhood pizzerias to Michelin-starred destinations, wineries, and pop-ups in 28 countries.
From ordinary reservations to extraordinary experiences, Tock allows guests to discover and book wherever they are — on Google, Instagram, Facebook, Maps, or on the Tock app. Coming soon is Tock Time, the first of its kind digital concierge system for diners. Later this summer, Tock's partnership with JPMorgan Chase will see the launch of Ultimate Rewards Dining, allowing millions of diners to discover and book Tock restaurants through a direct integration into the Chase platform. For more information, visit www.exploretock.com.
About Origin Ventures:
Origin Ventures is a venture capital firm founded in 1999 based in Chicago and Salt Lake City, primarily focused on Seed and Series A equity investments in companies building products and services for the Digital Native economy. The partners are former operators and engineers with a combined 75+ years of venture investing experience and have produced $4.2B of aggregate company exit value. Previous investments include Grubhub, Teem, Ahalogy, Cameo, 15Five, BacklotCars, and Tovala. For more information, visit www.originventures.com.
About Valor Siren Ventures:
The Valor Siren Ventures mission is to be the leading innovation engine and market maker in early-stage food, food technology, and retail technology investing. Our team aspires to create value by generating differentiated investment opportunities, applying our intellectual capital, and accelerating the growth of portfolio companies through VSV operations assistance in scaling. For more information, please visit www.valorep.com/valor-siren-ventures-vsv.
