Foodetective raises USD 2M in seed funding to launch their new unified API for the restaurant industry
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Foodetective, the universal platform, and interface for restaurant systems and software, announces USD 2 million in seed funding and the introduction of its new API and interface. The new version allows F&B businesses to manage, integrate and aggregate their entire tech stack on a single dashboard and operating system. It enables businesses to manage their apps in a custom interface using simple plug-and-play technology. We interviewed Founder & CEO Andrea Tassistro about the use of these new funds and his inspiration to change the restaurant industry.
This past year due to the pandemic, restaurant managers have been pressured to increase digital operations. According to the NPD Group, digital orders to restaurants in the U.S. rose 145% in December 2020 compared to a year earlier. Square’s Future of Restaurants 2021 report said that 88% of U.S. restaurants are considering a switch to digital-only menus. With the growth of takeout, restaurants have had to pivot to new delivery and takeaway systems, as well as increase their social media presence.
Now integrating services from 300+ vendor partners and POS providers such as Square, Uber Eats, Stripe and Orkestro, and hundreds of wholesalers including Nestlé and other leading FMCG companies, Foodetective allows restaurants to merge their technology in a custom, centralized dashboard and access all of their digital subscriptions from a single app manager. This solution solves the industry’s challenging problem of a completely decentralized tech stack. Currently, Foodetective’s platform hosts 17,500+ businesses (restaurants, bars, and F&B companies) across Europe. In the U.S., Foodetective will soon be available through its global partners and wholesalers.
Foodetective’s plug-and-play technology makes it easy for restaurant operators to select the partner platforms they use in-house, as well as to search for new services they might need. Solutions offered on the single platform include reservations, delivery, HR, social media, logistics, waste management, community management, stock management, recruiting, finances, wholesalers, and point of sale (POS). By partnering with as many restaurant service providers as possible, Foodetective is effectively becoming a “Stripe” for the restaurant industry.The platform also aggregates data from the different services used into a custom analytics dashboard for each client, eliminating the fragmented approach and the related cluttered restaurant reception desk.
Andrea, how will the USD 2 million investment help achieve your vision?The money raised will be used to further optimize our product and strengthen our Universal API to provide our Partners (POS, Delivery, Bookings, HR, Stock Management, Wholesalers, and more) with Software Development Kits (SDK's). These SDKs will enable our Partners to integrate their solution into Foodetective seamlessly. This investment round brings us closer to achieving our vision of creating a truly holistic value offering to F&B businesses by centralizing their entire operations and tech stack from a single interface. In turn, making restaurants’ lives much easier.
You participated in the Innosuisse Business Growth in 2019. How did it leverage your fundraising strategy?
InnoSuisse gave me the opportunity to be advised by experienced business leaders, such as Pascal Dutheuil (Neventa Capital) and Vincent Bieri (Nexthink), sharing invaluable insights and providing guidance on how to take Foodetective forward. They've continued to mentor me during each of our fundraising rounds and still offer their counsel, as and when requested which I'm incredibly grateful for. Additionally, I'm so thankful to the entire InnoSuisse team and experts who have supported us since the beginning and were one the first to believe in the Foodetective mission back in 2019.
When, and what, was your inspiration to found Foodetective?
Prior to Foodetective, I worked a number of years across the restaurant industry, in an operational and tech capacity; beginning at Tommi’s Burger Joint (London, UK), then founding the Green Van Company (Lausanne, Switzerland ), and then finishing at Let’s Brunch (Geneva, Switzerland). Throughout all of these experiences, I saw that the industry was lacking a simple yet complete tool that helps restaurants manage their entire operations from a single interface. This was the genesis of Foodetective, to develop a centralized platform to manage your entire operations from one screen.
What is your advice for the potential Foodtech entrepreneurs launching companies in Switzerland today?
Your product is key, invest in it. Spend as much time as possible with your early customers as they're the ones who provide invaluable insight relating to your product and service offering. Take your time on this early phase, don’t try to rush things as it'll only set you back further later down the line. Finally, be extremely resilient and avoid repeating mistakes twice.
