Dallas-area startup OneDine has secured a new round of investment of US$5 million to handle growth as it brings needed tech to the restaurant industry.
Founded in 2017, OneDine, a Plano-based tech firm with the potential to reduce restaurants’ labor costs, said it would use a new US$5 million capital infusion to increase its staff from 24 to 100 employees by the end of this year.
The Series A round comes from an unidentified private family trust. TMW Capital and Hidden Lake Asset Management of New York also participated in the funding round.
“The reason we had to do this [funding round] so quickly after our seed round is because we had to completely staff into fulfillment,” said One Dine founder and CEO Rom Krupp.
He said they didn’t expect that they could build a $100 million pipeline in five months, adding that it’s been a rollercoaster ride for the startup.
The OneDine platform gives restaurants access to even more data and allows them to focus on crafting the optimal dining experience for customers, according to the company.
Its platform lets restaurant customers browse a digital menu on their phones and place food orders from their tables without the need to ever talk to a server.
OneDine charges restaurants a subscription fee to integrate its platform with existing point of sale systems. Until recently, OneDine’s clientele mostly focused around California- and New York-based restaurants.
The company saw higher demand for its platform in those areas because of stricter regulations governing labor and wages.
Krupp said OneDine can help restaurants operate with up to 20% less waitstaff while maintaining a quality customer experience.
“Restaurants have to understand how they can incorporate technology to augment their servers, not replace the servers,” he said.
“Don’t give up on guests’ experience completely with human interaction, but figure out what points of the guest experience you can use technology and automation to provide a better experience,” added Krupp.
One example of how its technology can be used: A device at a restaurant table can easily connect to an iPhone, giving patrons the option to order a couple of more tacos or an extra pizza from a table — and without the extra step of downloading an app.
Matt Silk, founder and CEO of Austin-based TMW Capital, said he invested in OneDine because there’s a waiting list of restaurants wanting to implement its technology.#
