Point-of-sale software developer Tiller Systems and wholesale food supplier Transgourmet have partnered to launch an incubator aimed at the restaurant sector, Les Echos has reported.
The three-month scheme is dubbed La Frégate (translated as ‘the frigate’) and has attracted an undisclosed amount of capital from food products supplier Unilever Food Solutions and commercial cooking appliances manufacturer Rational. It will be located at Tiller’s Paris offices.
La Frégate is set to launch in September 2017, and will favour business concepts that involve setting up a chain rather than an individual restaurant. The aim is to support three classes of startups per year that will contain a total of 25 teams altogether.
The initiative is aimed at restaurateurs hoping to launch their eateries three to six months after graduating. They will receive access to mentoring, workshops and expert advice from established chefs and restaurateurs.
The teams will also have access to a professional kitchen to develop their menus and will benefit from a pitch day at graduation to present their concepts to the incubator’s four partners as well as external investors and experts.
La Frégate will particularly look to help develop restaurants that take full advantage of modern-day technologies, in a sector that has been comparatively slow to embrace digitisation. Tiller specifically hopes the future eateries will use its point-of-sale software.