Owner raises $240M for its restaurant management platform

Owner.com Inc., a startup with a platform that helps restaurant operators coordinate their day-to-day business operations, has raised $240 million in funding.

Goldman Sachs led the Series D round. Owner said in today’s funding announcement that the bank was joined by Meritech, Redpoint, Headline and Benchmark partner Jack Altman, Sam Altman’s brother. The startup is now worth $2.3 billion.

Many of the features in Owner’s platform focus on easing restaurants’ marketing efforts. The software can generate a restaurant website complete with a menu, a form for submitting catering orders and other promotional widgets in a few days. From there, it occasionally fine-tunes the property to optimize its search ranking.

Owner’s marketing features also extend beyond restaurant websites. One capability encourages diners to leave positive Google Maps reviews. Another ensures that a restaurant’s listings across third-party platforms such as Uber Eats, TripAdvisor and Yelp are up-to-date.

Owner’s second major focus area is order management. The company provides a tablet that restaurant staff can use to take in-venue orders, change purchase details and process gift cards. It doubles as a website management tool that workers can use to update their restaurant’s online menu.

The Kitchen Tablet, as the handset is called, is one of two hardware products that Owner sells. The other is a point-of-sale system that displays upsell offers when restaurant visitors make a purchase. It also encourages diners to download the restaurant’s app.

Owner provides a prepackaged app that restaurants can customize with their branding. It enables businesses to take food orders without going through a third-party delivery platform, which avoids the associated fees. Additionally, the app includes a loyalty program feature designed to boost the frequency of purchases.

The startup also offers a second app that restaurant operators can use to manage day-to-day operations. It enables users to issue refunds, notify customers about order delays and mange deliveries. A sales dashboard displays information about the restaurant’s business performance in the past day and its most popular courses.

Owner has embedded artificial intelligence in several parts of its platform. One AI capability automatically fields phone orders, while another can generate promotional campaigns for popular menu items.

“Now, for the first time, local restaurants have the same tech advantages as the huge chains they compete with,” said Chief Executive Adam Guild (pictured, second from the right, with the company’s other co-founders).

Owner’s annualized recurring revenue topped $100 million ahead of today’s round. It will use the capital to onboard more restaurants and move into other markets such as the grocery segment. Additionally, it plans to make its software available internationally. 

Photo: Owner