Toast, a US-based restaurant technology producer backed by internet technology conglomerate Alphabet, closed a $101m funding round yesterday co-led by investment firm Generation Investment Management and growth equity firm Lead Edge Capital.
Some existing investors also contributed capital to the oversubscribed round, though only venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners was named by the company.
Founded in 2011, Toast has developed a mobile, cloud-based point-of-sale system for restaurants. The platform enables staff to edit menus on the fly if items become unavailable, while repeat customers can benefit from loyalty schemes based on data from previous visits.
Toast’s software measures the productivity of restaurant team members and managers, and collects data on the kitchen’s efficiency. The platform also integrates with third-party applications such as mobile payment platform Samsung Pay.
The funding will support the further development of Toast’s platform, with a focus on aspects such as online ordering, customer relationship management and marketing tools, self-ordering kiosks, inventory management and leveraging data to provide better personalisation.
Toast also expects to almost double its staff from more than 500 employees to nearly 1,000 over the next 18 months.
GV, a corporate venturing subsidiary of Alphabet, participated in a $30m round for Toast in January 2016 that was led by Bessemer, with participation from unnamed private investors.
Steve Papa, formerly chief executive of software developer Endeca, took part in a $7m series A round for the company, according to BostInno. Toast also raised $3m in debt financing in 2015, according to a securities filing.