A founder who has drawn a name for himself by manufacturing products to help restaurants better connect to potential visitors has raised $ 50 million for his latest start: a new assumption of the idea of customer loyalty.
Labs Blackbird It has created a payment-lyalty-meets-blockchain for restaurants to develop recurring businesses, reducing some of the friction around trading. Now, with about 1,000 restaurants they have signed, CEO Ben Levenhal said Blackbird plans to use the money to launch its newest product, a “points” service calling the Blackbird Club, as well as to expand to more markets outside New York (its headquarters) Carolina.
Why Charleston, do you ask? “Charleston beats over his class,” Leverethal said in an interview with TechCrunch. “It is a great city of restaurants for its size.” It also seems to be the New Zealand’s equivalent for Meta, with Levenhal calling it “a good test market for us”.
Spark Capital, a young supporter, is leading this last round, with the participation of Coinbase Ventures, Amex Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz – three investors who supported Blackbird in the $ 24 million series in 2023. The valuation is not revealed, but for a reference, a reference point, a point Notes for the book that the start was estimated at about $ 124 million in this last round. The start has raised $ 85 million to date.
Coinbase and Amex are strategic names in this directory.
Amex acquired Resy, a platform of reservations that Leverethal previously founded in 2019. Before the Resy, the third starting with a Leventhal restaurant was also acquired, The Food Blog Eater was also acquired: It is now part of Vox. There are no plans for how or whether it will lead to a corporate relationship agreement.
BlackBird describes Flynet Payment Service as a three -layer -based Coinbase’s Base. Diners can use it to pay for meals on the table through the Blackbird app, as well as redeem the points of faith when visiting restaurants.
It is worth asking if the blockchain was strictly an indispensable part of the mixture. There are many other market dedication programs on the market, including a number that are direct competitors of Blackbird, such as Punchh, Toast and Lightspeed, based on more conventional economic structures.
“I don’t think they are necessarily” must be built on blockchain, “Leverethal said.” Visa’s network, more or less, was created using the same principles we use for Flynet and obviously did not have a blockchain. “
But Levenhal also pointed out that “there are some things we believe that over time will be important opportunities and these opportunities will be based on the existence of the chain”. These include how Blackbird and restaurants hold profiles and customer activity, he said. “Consumers will be able to continue to own this profile,” Leverethal told TechCrunch. It is also related to how Blackbird predicts his commitment to restaurants, he said: Every restaurant customer will eventually be a shareholder of Blackbird.
You may believe that, with two newly established companies dedicated to the side facing consumers of restaurant trade, Leverethal could have filled the business. As it turns out, he is still hungry for more.
Ownership of restaurants has long been a difficult business, but the economy and changing consumer habits have particularly hit the world of restaurants around many years.
Levenhal mentions data from the National Restaurant Association that notes that the average restaurant profitability these days is under 5%compared to an average of about 20% in the early 2000s.
While platforms such as Instagram and Tiktok have turned the world into armchairs, producing legions of people flocking from the latest and cooler cafes, do so in a time of rapidly diminished margins and increased price sensitivity. These are areas that are going to be tougher if the US really locks its latest hikes.
“There is a disconnection in the restaurant industry between popularity and the intensity of consumer love for restaurants and ultimately the profitability of the industry,” he said.
This is, of course, disconnected to start thinking means an opportunity.
“The restaurant industry consists of millions of local owners of small businesses around the world,” said Arianna Simpson, a partner at A16Z, in TechCrunch by email. “These restaurants are at the mercy of technological platforms that can charge a large and often increasing percentage of a restaurant’s margin.”
Simpson believes this is especially when blockchain can play a role: improving the structure of the margin. “Ben’s vision is for a network owned by restaurants and Diners themselves, which is something that only blockchains allow,” he said, adding that Blackbird is already saving 3-4% restaurant customers on payment earnings.
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