ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Popmenu, an all-in-one digital marketing and ordering SaaS platform for restaurants, announced today that it has raised a $17 million Series B funding round. Bedrock Capital led the investment, with participation from existing investors Base10 Partners and Felicis Ventures as well as new investors Mantis Ventures and Chapter One Ventures. Popmenu plans to use the funding to accelerate development of features that will help restaurants attract, engage and provide streamlined ordering for customers in more powerful and cost-efficient ways than ever before.
Popmenu's innovative platform has enabled thousands of restaurants to connect with their guests online, manage their own online ordering, and protect their profitability against expensive third-party platforms. Popmenu provides restaurant owners with a dynamic menu-centric website built with SEO in mind, along with a full suite of marketing tools spanning email, SMS, social, Google My Business, and real-time menu management.
“So many industries have experienced radically accelerated trends through the COVID crisis, probably none more so than the restaurant industry,” said Brendan Sweeney, CEO and co-founder of Popmenu. “We’ve seen incredible adaptation, creativity and resilience from our clients across the country. We’re proud to have equipped them with features from online ordering to contactless menus to automated smart messaging that helped them put their best foot forward despite uncertainty all around them. They’ve embraced technology as key to weathering these challenging times. We are fired up to give them even more help attracting guests and reducing costs and complexity on the road to recovery.”
Spencer Peterson of Bedrock Capital said, “Popmenu’s impressive growth trajectory has been propelled by Brendan and Tony’s empathy for restaurant owners. Their unique product approach empowers independent restaurants and large chains alike to meet online demand — an increasingly critical channel for all restaurants. Bedrock is delighted to lead this investment.”
Popmenu’s growth has been fueled by the growing needs of independent restaurants and multi-concept hospitality groups alike. From boosting online ordering revenue of community staple Terra Terroir in Atlanta, to streamlining marketing automation and processes across locations of famed Los Angeles hotspot Urth Caffe, Popmenu’s platform is uniquely designed to meet the needs of independent restaurants of all sizes.
Rexhi Dollaku of Base10 Partners said, "Popmenu already had a broad and differentiated feature set when we led their Series A last year. We’ve been so impressed by the team’s rapid response to expand their platform in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They have helped thousands of their clients survive and thrive regardless of local market conditions. It's very much become a Shopify for restaurants, giving control over engaging and transacting with guests exactly when restaurants need it the most."
Milan Koch of Mantis VC, which is a recently formed fund created by the music duo The Chainsmokers, said "When Alex, Drew and I met the Popmenu team, it was obvious to us right away how much they really cared about restaurateurs. Having close ties with owners and hospitality groups worldwide and knowing the unique challenges they face, we got excited about how Popmenu’s product could help impact their businesses in so many different ways."
“When the COVID-19 crisis began, we totally shared our clients’ anxiety,” said Sweeney. “But we put our heads down, focused on how we could help, and just tried to match their hustle in getting up every day and giving our all. We have received notes from hundreds of clients thanking us for being there for them through the darkest of times, which is incredibly humbling and has only galvanized our ambition to deliver a product that will help their business perform better than ever on the other side of these difficult times.”
About Popmenu
Popmenu is a full-service marketing and customer engagement platform built for independent restaurants. The cloud-based SaaS platform helps restaurant owners give potential guests everything they need before booking a reservation by way of custom-built websites and a revolutionary online menu platform. Popmenu empowers restaurants to take back control of the conversation with its guests and fight third-party platforms that have gotten in the way of their success.
Popmenu is helping drive the future of restaurant guest engagement by taking a revolutionary approach with our patent-pending, cloud-based, dynamic and interactive platform. Popmenu powers the consumer experience for thousands of restaurants across the US and beyond.
Website: get.popmenu.com
About Bedrock Capital
Bedrock is a global investment firm that invests in breakthrough technology companies upending conventional narratives. The firm and its founding partners have been amongst the earliest investors in companies including Lyft, Wish, Nubank, Canva, RigUp, Lambda School, The Athletic and Rippling. Founded in late 2017, Bedrock is headquartered in the United States and currently manages approximately half a billion dollars. See www.bedrockcap.com.
About Base10 Partners
Base10 is a San Francisco-based early-stage venture firm investing in Automation for the Real Economy. Founded by Adeyemi Ajao and TJ Nahigian, the firm invests in technology companies that are bringing automation to sectors of the Real Economy, including industrial logistics, consumer logistics, restaurants, financial services, and sales & customer service. Portfolio companies include ThePillClub, Virtual Kitchen Company, Acquire, PopMenu, and others. Connect via base10.vc.
About Felicis Ventures
Founded in 2006, Felicis Ventures is a venture capital firm that has backed 27 companies valued at $1B or more. Felicis invests in iconic companies reinventing core markets (Opendoor, Flexport), as well as those creating frontier technologies (Ginkgo Bioworks, Recursion Pharmaceuticals). More than 80 Felicis portfolio companies have been acquired or gone public, including Adyen (IPO), Guardant Health (IPO), Fitbit (IPO), Shopify (IPO), Meraki (acquired by Cisco), Twitch (acquired by Amazon) and Ring (acquired by Amazon). To learn more, please visit www.felicis.com.
About Mantis VC
MANTIS Venture Capital, in partnership with The Chainsmokers, is an early stage technology investment firm supporting the most innovative companies that are seeking to disrupt existing frameworks of business that feature direct distribution, scalable revenue, and prioritization of the user experience. Founded in 2019, Mantis VC has launched a $35M Fund I to invest in rapidly growing companies at the Seed and Series A. The firm is headquartered in Los Angeles with an additional office in San Francisco.
