Venture Capital News: Tabbedout Announces $7.75 in Series B
2013-10-04
AUSTIN, TX, Application that allows consumers to open, review and securely pay their tab from a mobile phone in thousands of bars and restaurants nationally, has closed $7.75 million.
Tabbedout, an application that allows consumers to open, review and securely pay their tab from a mobile phone in thousands of bars and restaurants nationally, has closed $7.75 million in an oversubscribed Series B financing round. Sparked by significant advances in a marketing platform that allows venues to directly communicate with their customers, and strategic partnerships with some of the largest payment processing companies in the world, Tabbedout will use the funds to accelerate growth and market penetration. The investment was raised from NEA, Heartland Payment Systems and Morgan Creek Capital.
'To satisfy consumer demands and address hospitality needs, restaurants and bars are looking for easy, cost-effective ways to generate revenue growth for their business, and create a more secure and personalized relationship with their customers,' said Rick Yang, principal at New Enterprise Associates. 'Tabbeout has created a truly innovative solution for the hospitality industry, giving merchants key insights into customer behavior and feedback, which greatly improves the consumer experience.'
'As the industry gives way to the 'appification' of business solutions, the viability of a sustainable mobile payments platform depends on ongoing innovation as well as the ability to integrate with emerging technologies and enable merchants to work with the payments and POS providers of their choice,' said Bob Carr, chairman and CEO of Heartland. 'We're excited to contribute to Tabbedout's continued growth and encourage other restaurant service providers to join us as we deliver this app to restaurants and bars across the country.'
'We set out to build an application that solves real payment pain for consumers. When my four-year-old is dismantling the booth at my favorite restaurant and I have to hand my credit card to a stranger who walks away for 10 minutes to close my tab, I would do most anything to be able to review, tip, and pay the tab on my schedule,' said Alex Broeker, CEO of Tabbedout. 'Solving this pain allowed us to attract Series B funding from investment partners with the vision and track record of NEA, Heartland Payment Systems and Morgan Creek Capital. Our business model demonstrates strong value for payment companies, and the resulting early adoption momentum has helped to accelerate our fundraising efforts.'
The National Restaurant Association and research analyst firm Double Diamond Group estimate that the market for hospitality mobile payments is 650,000 locations nationwide. 'The de facto restaurant-payment experience is the worst payment experience there is,' says Todd Ablowitz, president of Double Diamond Group, a centennial, Colo.-based mobile payment consultancy. 'There's nothing worse than ¦ having the server go back and forth multiple times to take your check, type it in, come back with the final bill, go back with your credit card, bring it back for signing. Tabbedout simplifies and improves the experience. It solves a real problem that uses the technology everyone already has now. It's one of the best, if not the best, example of a mobile payment I've seen.'
Tabbedout is available in thousands of locations nationwide and has integrations with over 70% of the US hospitality POS providers. When bars and restaurants 'Prefer Tabbedout' for payment, their POS System automatically gathers customer purchase history and feedback, creating easy and comprehensive customer profiles and lists. This puts simple tools at the fingertips of any venue to offer rewards to existing customers and incentives to bring new ones in. This ability to 'Know Your Customer' is currently unavailable with any other hospitality-based mobile payment solution. Benefitting both merchant and consumer, Tabbedout alleviates venue staff of processing and closing checks, directly increasing table turnover, overall gratuity and ultimately bottom line revenue.
For more information, please visit Tabbedout.com.
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