The FINANCIAL — Foodtech startup Choice, which was founded by Alex Ilyash ( forbes 30 under 30 Czech edit) , has raised a new investment round of 2.5M USD and expanded to Romania. The total funding of the startup to date is valued at $4.1M.
Choice is an online B2B subscription-based platform on which any restaurant can create their website and set up all necessary tools related to the restaurant business in one admin: their own website, applications, online menus with QR payments, table reservations, and a CRM system. Additionally, the service can be easily integrated with popular POS systems as well as with marketplaces like Glovo, Wolt, Bolt, Ubereats“We plan to invest 300-500k for launching the market, costs are mainly related to the hiring of local team reps. All DEV costs are centralized in Prague”, Alex Ilyash, Founder and CEO told The FINANCIAL.
“Our shortest plan is to maintain a growth of 300% year over year. Our goal is to become the leading solution in the CEE region by 2024 and within the next 3 years in the whole of Europe”, company said.
“We plan to have 1000 active restaurants in the market where we operate.
Also, we plan to open an office in Tbilisi in the upcoming months and hire the first 5–8 representatives for sales and onboarding clients”, he said..
The company, which started three years ago, is now one of the fastest-growing foodtech companies in the CEE region, with over 16,000 registered restaurants and operations in Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
Instead of paying commission, restaurants can simply create their own website on Choice for a fixed monthly subscription starting from 23 Euros (local currency) and receive direct orders. Besides, restaurants can set up additional widgets such as table reservations, POS integration, QR payments and orders, as well as integrate Wolt and Glovo marketplaces into one single tablet.
“There is no big competitor in the market, so it’s a very friendly environment for us to enter the market. As well as we have already integrated with the main marketplaces.
There are two local competitors that we are aware of – it is Kovzy and oFoodo. But if they want to cooperate instead of competing, we are more than welcome”, Alex Ilyash, Founder and CEO told The FINANCIAL.
POS/Cash register systems primarily automate and digitize restaurant back-office operations, everything related to the inside operations of the restaurant. At Choice, we focus on covering everything related to communication between restaurants and their guests, becoming their main solution for the front-office operations of the restaurants”, says Alex Ilyash.
The gastro industry is changing and adopting new technologies, and we aim to become main partners of the restaurant in the world of IT. With a mission not only to bring technologies but also to educate and help the market use them wisely.
“99% of restaurants do not know their customers. This is a real challenge for restaurant owners because they don’t know who their most popular guests are, how often they visit the restaurant, what their preferences and allergies are, how many people stop visiting the restaurant, and for what reasons. Choice was created with a mission to help restaurants digitize their customer base, increase customer retention, and satisfaction. We can already see how the digitalization of this sphere affects the development of establishments in different cities and countries of Europe and allows us to improve their services” , says Ilyash.
The main benefit and difference from other platforms is that Choice is able to bring direct orders to the restaurants with no commission, build a client database, and increase the retention of guests. By providing integration with food marketplaces, Choice is able to collect all orders to one single tablet, so restaurants don’t need to manage orders on 3-4 different devices or admin panels.”
“We invested in Choice as we like the company’s excellent operations and strong founder who we believe can deliver its huge vision in the upcoming months” , said Adam Kočík, Managing Partner at J&T Ventures ( lead investor for current round)
- Deal amount:
2,5M USD investment round.
- Who are the investors in this round? Who is the lead investor?
J&T Ventures > lead investor
Presto Ventures
Reflex Capital
- Which of the investors can we request a quote from for the release?
All of them can share a quote, the CEO can request and share.
- What will the investment be used for?
The company is currently breaking even on the markets where we operate, the investment will be primarily used for opening another 4 markets in 2024 and keep growing.“Choice is a B2B SaaS. Our main business indicator is MRR (monthly recurring revenue from subscriptions). We are currently at $150,000 MRR and aim to reach $450,000 by the end of this year, which will make us a leader in the CEE region.
For 2023 data: – 100,000,000 views of restaurant websites on Choice.
– 2,000,000+ orders were made in restaurants with a total value of $42,000,000 USD. – We currently have 16,000+ registered restaurants
Factsheet
– Founded on September 17, 2020.
– Seed round of $1.6M USD on July 24, 2022.
– Company reached $2M USD ARR on December 31, 2023.
– Closed late Seed round of $2.5M USD on January 3, 2024.
– Series A round in planned for Q4 2024
J&T Ventures, a Prague-based Venture Capital fund, became the lead investor for the current round. Previous investors, Reflex Capital and Presto Ventures, also joined the investment round. The total funding of the startup till today is valued at $4.1M.
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