Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

DailyPay

On-Demand Pay App DailyPay Raises $500M in Capital

On-demand payment service DailyPay announced today it has “secured” $500 million in capital, according to a press release sent to The Spoon. Of that number, $175 million comes from a Series D round led by Carrick Capital Partners with participation from existing investors. The remaining $325 million comes in the form of “credit capital from various sources.” DailyPay says it will use the capital to make its platform available in new markets.   

Through the DailyPay platform, restaurants (among other business types) can offer employees instant access to wages earned that day with the DailyPay app. For employees, this means not necessarily having to live from paycheck. For restaurant owners and operators, the ability to offer a better pay structure for employees theoretically means happier workers and hopefully less turnover. 

DailyPay’s fundraise and planned expansion comes at a time when the restaurant industry is grappling with an industry-wide labor shortage. As the world reopens again, restaurants of all sizes say they are having trouble getting old employees to return to work or new ones to take their place. Frequently, former restaurant employees are leaving to work in other industries or choosing to live off unemployment benefits. In major cities like NYC and Los Angeles, the shortage can also be attributed to people leaving for more affordable places to live. 

On-demand pay can’t fix all of these problems, but certainly doesn’t hurt if a restaurant offers such a system to its employees. And many do nowadays. Over time, DailyPay has added the likes of Captain D’s, Boston Market, Sprinkles, and other chains to its list of customers. Other chains, such as Domino’s, McDonald’s, and Chili’s, use similar services from apps like Branch and Instant.

The DailyPay platform also lets restaurants disperse tips immediately, reward employees with financial commissions or bonuses, and offers workers some financial assistance tools to help them better manage their earnings.

Here’s a Rundown of Restaurant Tech Deals Available to Struggling Businesses

As more restaurants are forced to pivot to off-premises models in the fight to stay alive, it seems more tech companies are coming to market with hardware and/or software meant to speed up, simplify, automate, and more efficiently manage delivery. And in the spirit of simplifying things, I’ve rounded up a number of those solutions here that address different parts of the off-premises model. 

Just remember: there are tech solutions that solve problems and, as a friend of mine once said, tech solutions in search of problems. Reduced fees or no, not every product or service is going to be useful, and what improves one restaurant’s business could be a total distraction for another.

Order-ahead app Allset has a contactless pickup option at participating restaurants. For all existing restaurant partners that provide the contactless pickup option at their stores, the company is waiving commission fees.

Delivery orchestration platform Bringg launched its BringgNow feature months ahead of schedule. The new feature helps larger chain restaurants, among other businesses, manage delivery orders, track drivers, make last-minute adjustments, and integrate with third-party platforms. BringgNow is free to new users at this time.

Chowly, whose tech helps manage delivery orders, is offering a “no cost” starter package to businesses needing to quickly pivot to delivery models as more cities and states shut down dining rooms.

DailyPay, an app that lets restaurant workers access their earnings immediately, has waived all access fees so that individuals using the service can get their earned income immediately. 

POS and guest management software platform Epicuri is waiving set up fees and offering a 60-day free trial with no commitment for restaurants right now.

Paytronix just launched a new cloud-based solution that lets restaurants add online ordering and delivery to their existing POS systems and, for those who want to conduct delivery in-house, integrate with DoorDash.

Presto is giving away free self-service kiosks that at this point can be used for pickup orders. In an email to The Spoon, the company also said it is also “offering Presto Quick Serve drive-thru kiosks, staff handhelds, and smartwatches completely free.”

Ordermark, a software-hardware platform that streamlines the process of accepting, managing, and fulfilling delivery orders, is waiving all setup fees right now, according to an email sent to The Spoon.

Restaurant order management platform Revention is offering an Online Ordering and Delivery Starter Bundle for a reduced price. It includes a POS terminal, optional DoorDash on-demand delivery service, and remote installation.

Guest management platform Sevenrooms now offers a feature called Direct Delivery that gives restaurants more ownership over their customer data on delivery and takeout orders. For the next 90 days, existing and prospective Sevenrooms customers can add the feature on at no extra cost. 

End-to-end platform Toast has eliminated software fees for restaurant customers for the next month and will provide those customers with free access to its digital ordering, marketing, and gift card programs for three months. 

Operations platform Zenput says it is “offering operators that are new to Zenput – at no charge or obligation through the end of June 2020 – the ability to use our platform to build-out, communicate, and ensure compliance with their COVID-19 processes.”

Online food ordering platform Zuppler is offering free setup and reduced pricing for restaurants and caterers who want to add online or Google ordering to their websites.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll know more about which products and services are most beneficial to restaurants trying to survive the current situation in which the industry finds itself. In the meantime, drop us a line if you know a company or product you think should be on this list.

Food Tech News: Huel Challenges Soylent, Rum Made with Upcycled Banana Peel

The news has been slowing down a bit this week as people prepare to head home and spend time with family. Or, you know, rush to the mall to buy last-minute presents.

But there were still plenty of interesting food tech stories that piqued our interest ’round the web during this pre-holiday season. This week, we’ve got stories about Huel’s new nutritionally complete energy bars, Captain D’s allowing instant employee payment, and rum infused with upcycled banana peel. Enjoy!

Huel launches all-in-one nutrition bars in the U.S.
French startup Huel, which makes a meal-in-a-bottle drink similar to Soylent, announced this week that it would launch its Huel Bars in the U.S. market. The bars are 200 calories each, vegan and gluten-free, and offer “complete nutrition.” Meant to be eaten as a snack between meals, the bars cost $28 for a box of 15 and are available on Huel’s website. Soylent also launched a similar high-nutrition snack bar earlier this year, so let’s see if Huel, which only entered the U.S. market this year, can compete.

Photo: Discarded

Discarded unveils rum made with banana peel
The Discarded Spirits Company, part of the Scottish spirit company William Grant & Sons, just revealed its newest upcycled booze: rum infused with banana peels (h/t The Spirits Business). Discarded creates a banana extract out of banana peels destined for the trash bin which it combines with rum to create a fruity final product. This is the second upcycled beverage from Discarded, which began selling vermouth infused with cascara, the oft-discarded fruit of the coffee bean, last year. For now Discarded’s drinks are only available in the U.K.

QSR chain Captain D’s adds DailyPay
Captain D’s, a fast-casual restaurant chain, is now offering its employees the ability to instantly get access to their earnings through DailyPay. DailyPay lets employees transfer their wages to their bank or a pay card before their next official payday. The service recently integrated with InfoSync, an accounting, reporting, and HR platform used by restaurants. Amy Sizemore, Vice President of Human Resources for Captain D’s, told Hospitality Tech that Captain D’s locations that use DailyPay have a 66 percent lower turnover rate than those that don’t.

Week in Restaurants: Uber Eats Launches Group Ordering, Waitr Could Get Delisted

Recent news from suburban destination Dave & Buster’s brings up memories of the weekend I had one too many Washington Apples and lost my credit card during a Dance Dance Revolution challenge. If you’re planning similar shenanigans for the weekend, you might want leave the plastic at home and consider the chain’s new contactless payment app. More on that below, along with a few more noteworthy stories that happened in the restaurant industry this week.

Uber Launches Group Ordering
Aiming to further streamline the process for customers choosing and ordering food, Uber Eats this week launched a Group Order feature that lets multiple people participate in a single order. Customers just click the “Start Group Order” button within the app and can then share a link with friends, family, and coworkers, according to a blog post from Uber Eats. Restaurants can opt into the service for no additional charge. The feature is similar to Postmates group order feature, which launched this past August. DoorDash, meanwhile, has offered group ordering since 2017.

Waitr in Danger of Getting Delisted 
Third-party delivery service Waitr is in danger of getting delisted by Nasdaq, according to a recent regulatory filing. Nasdaq warned that the Louisiana-based company could be delisted because its stock has been below $1 per share for the last 30 consecutive business days. Waitr has until June 1, 2020 to regain compliance, which means its common stock needs to close at $1 or more per share for 10 consecutive business days before that time. This time last year, Waitr looked to be a promising alternative to bigger services (DoorDash, Uber Eats) for smaller U.S. cities. That has not been the case for Waitr, which has struggled over the last 12 months with bad press and profitability issues alike. The company acquired Bite Squad earlier in the year but has since written off much of that deal. 

Flynn Restaurant Group Offers Instant Pay to Restaurant Workers
A sad reality for the restaurant biz is that its workers earning an hourly wage often live paycheck to paycheck. Of late, more restaurants are addressing the issue by teaming up with tech companies that offer employees faster access to their wages. The latest is DailyPay, an app users can link their bank account, payroll card, or debit card to and instantly access their earned but unpaid wages. This week, the company announced a partnership with Flynn Restaurant Group, parent company of well-known restaurant chains like Applebee’s, Arby’s, and Panera. According to a press release, the partnership makes DailyPay’s capabilities available to more than 48,000 restaurant employees across the U.S. 

Dave & Buster’s Unveils In-store Contactless Payments App
If you’re up for a night of drinks and arcade games but worry about losing your credit card in the process (see above), there’s now an app for that. Dave & Buster’s this week announced a mobile app customers can use to pay for games at the famed arcade/bar/restaurant. Previously, one swiped a credit card to start a game. With the new app, customers can simply tap their phone. The app also manages rewards points users earn from in-store purchases like games.

Branch and Delaget Partner to Bring Better Financial Tech Tools to Restaurant Employees

It’s no secret employee turnover at restaurants is high. That’s especially true in 2019, where record growth for the restaurant industry has led to increased competition for a dwindling workforce.

Mobile pay management app Branch and restaurant management platform Delaget want to change that by helping restaurants offer more financial incentives to hourly employees. Today, the two companies announced a partnership that integrates Branch’s app with Delaget’s platform, giving restaurant employees the option, among other things, to access their earnings instantly.

Minneapolis, MN-based Branch was founded in 2015 as shift scheduling and management tool for retailers and restaurants. Over time, the company added features like wage tracking and management and, most recently, a service called Pay. The latter lets hourly employees access their wages instantly, rather than having to wait for the end of a given pay period. 

Employees of participating restaurants simply download the Branch app and enter information like their employer, debit card or bank account number to get access to the platform. Unbanked employees using payroll cards can also use the app by entering their payroll card number. Users can either wait two days to receive their funds after requesting them or pay a $3.99 charge for instant deposits. According to an email from Branch, users can also get free instant transactions when they sign up for Branch’s free checking account and debit card. Major restaurant chains like McDonald’s and Taco Bell already use the service.

Delaget, meanwhile, is a platform that offers financial and analytics services made specifically for restaurants, among them Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC. With the new partnership, Delaget restaurant customers will be able to automatically offer their employees Branch’s aforementioned Pay service. Employees also get tools for budgeting and overdraft protection.

For the restaurants themselves, the Branch integration includes new tools around scheduling and shift management, predicting turnover rates, and workflow management. According to the press release, the integration lets restaurants access all of this without disrupting or replacing the existing systems in their tech stack.

“Working with Delaget has allowed us to quickly deliver financial wellness tools to operators and their employees, without piling on additional costs or disrupting processes,” Atif Siddiqi, Branch Founder and CEO, said in a statement.

The restaurant industry in the U.S. is currently facing one of the most severe labor shortages in decades, and high turnover is practically inherent to an industry that employs countless students and teenagers. Restaurants large and small are now trying to find ways to entice their hourly employees to stay put, and instant access to wages is one tactic gaining popularity. Besides Branch, restaurants also work with companies like DailyPay and Instant Financial to give employees faster access to their earnings. 

Hourly employees of restaurants participating in Branch can sign up with the service for free.

The Week in Restaurant Tech: Ordermark and Omnivore Team Up, Employees Get On-Demand Pay

The restaurant biz may have once been seen as slow to adopt technology, but that’s less and less the case these days. In fact, between all the apps, kiosks, back-of-house systems, front-of-house software, automated pickup cubbies and enough other developments to fill a 600-word post, restaurant tech is a bit of a juggling act to keep up with lately.

A bird’s eye view of the scene every once in a while helps, so with that in mind, here’s a quick look at some highlights from this week in restaurant tech:

Ordermark and Omnivore team up for POS integration.
Los Angeles-based Ordermark, whose hardware-software package streamlines third-party delivery orders into a single dashboard, announced this week it has partnered with POS integration company Omnivore. The deal will allow any restaurant using certain POS systems, including Oracle Micros, Brink, and Dinerware, to integrate with Ordermark and aggregate orders from popular third-party delivery services like DoorDash and Grubhub.

Ordermark, who recently raised $18 million in Series B funding, serves major chains across the U.S., including TGI Friday’s and Subway, while Omnivore works with some of the biggest POS systems (see above). According to the press release, the combined integration “addresses over 85% of [restaurant] venues in North America.”

Waitbusters integrates with Postmates.
Waitbusters is one of those restaurant-tech companies that started with a narrow focus (getting rid of wait times at restaurants) and has since expanded to offer more features, including table-management features and some marketing. This week, the company also delved into the delivery world by adding a Postmates integration that’s aimed at restaurants that don’t have their own delivery fleet and may not be able to afford commission fees for third-party delivery services.

Restaurants are offering on-demand pay for employees.
With so much of the restaurant biz going “on demand” these days, it was only a matter of time before employee paychecks did likewise. QSRs are now offering ways for workers to instantly access their earnings. Third-party payment company DailyPay offers this feature via patent-pending technology that tracks employee earnings and lets them transfer funds, for a small service fee, instantly to their bank accounts. This week, NRN reported that Burger King franchisee TOMS King and LA-based chain Sprinkles Cupcakes both use the service in the hopes of curbing employee turnover and appealing to Gen Z workers accustomed to on-demand, uh, everything.

Backyard Burgers modernizes its chain with Qu’s POS.
The popular burger chain Back Yard Burgers announced this week it has teamed with POS company Qu to replace the legacy tech still hanging around its 28 locations. Back Yard Burgers, who is headquartered in Nashville, TN and has stores around the Southeast U.S., is on a quest to modernize its operations, particularly when it comes to standardizing and centralizing orders from disparate sales channels. Qu’s platform specializes in just that, integrating orders from web, mobile, and kiosks as well as those made in house.

Paytronix buys Open Dining.
Customer engagement company Paytronix this week completed its acquisition of food-ordering platform Open Dining. According to a press release, the new solution will let customers “use online ordering with integrations to point of sale (POS) and third-party delivery partners such as DoorDash and Grubhub.” Ohio-based Open Dining focuses mainly on small- to mid-sized businesses. With the acquisition, it will rebrand as Paytronix Order & Delivery.