Skift Take
In the competitive restaurant software market, services continue to double-down on the features that make them uniquely attractive to potential customers.
— Kristen Hawley
Guest management software company SevenRooms just announced an $8 million round of funding led by Comcast Ventures. SevenRooms provides reservations, seating, and customer relationship management (CRM) software to its clients via a point-of-sale (POS) and other associated systems. Previous investors include restaurateur Chef Thomas Keller and the Handwerker family, founders of Nathan’s Famous, among others.
“In today’s economy of shrinking restaurant margins, every dollar matters even more, and our mission remains the same: we are transforming hospitality by empowering operators to create and cultivate direct guest relationships that make exceptional experiences possible,” SevenRooms CEO and co-founder, Joel Montaniel, said in an interview. “More specifically, this funding will enable us to continue building platform capabilities that increase restaurant profitability, empower operators to provide more personalized guest service, streamline their operations, and build direct, meaningful relationship with their guests. It will also allow us to focus on new partnerships and integrations that will drive real impact to our clients’ bottom line.”
SevenRooms is currently experiencing significant growth; its partners seat more than two million guests each month through the company’s software — a number that has grown 327 percent year over year.
Unlike many of its competitors, SevenRooms powers reservations quietly. “Our philosophy is that we want to help the restaurant operator build a direct relationship with their guest,” Montaniel told Skift Table earlier this year. It can also work with existing systems, including OpenTable in many cases, rather than always serving as a replacement or rival.
Reservations software — and the associated POS and CRM software — is both an integral part of a restaurant’s operations and an increasingly competitive space. In early 2017, reservations service Resy announced a $13 million series A round of funding led by Airbnb. A few months later, Resy integrated reservations into Airbnb’s platform, allowing users to find and book restaurant reservations on Airbnb. OpenTable, now part of the Priceline Group and the largest digital reservations service in the space, seats 24 million diners per month, worldwide.
