ConverseNow raises $28.8 million for restaurant AI ordering platform

According to the business, restaurants that utilise ConverseNow’s AI technology platform may cut expenses while increasing productivity and efficiency.

According to Benjamin Brown, ConverseNow’s vice president of marketing, this has resulted in significant growth.

More than 1,200 restaurants in 40 states already utilise ConverseNow’s technology to process client orders. Domino’s Pizza, Fazoli’s, and Blake’s Lotaburger are among its consumers.

ConverseNow just received $10 million in investment from Enlightened Hospitality Investments, a growth equity company co-founded by Danny Meyer, the founder of Union Square Hospitality Group and Shake Shack.

“Over the last two years, we’ve witnessed a major shift in the way customers connect with restaurants, and for businesses to achieve customer loyalty today, they must create exceptional experiences.”

“Our team is excited to join with ConverseNow as the business advances restaurant industry innovation by allowing team members to spend more time connecting with guests where they can put hospitality to the forefront of their offering,” Meyer added.

ConverseNow previously raised $15 million in a Series A round, increasing the company’s total capital to $28.8 million. The firm employs 100 people and has its headquarters in Austin at WeWork in the Domain. It also employs people in India and Argentina.

ConverseNow developed a unique order-taking system that employs virtual assistants in both English and Spanish.

During the epidemic, the company’s technology received a significant boost as restaurants sought methods to automate their order-taking operations, according to Brown.

ConverseNow will be able to satisfy demand and expand into other areas thanks to the finance.

“We are immensely thrilled to collaborate with the hospitality professionals at EHI and USHG as we look forward to our next chapter of expansion,” stated ConverseNow co-founder and CEO Vinay Shukla in a news release. “Even with a 12X sales increase last year, we’ve gone a long way in 2022.”

Almost every restaurant chain is considering speech AI, and they are naturally turning to us as the category market leader. Demand is quite high, and one of our main issues has been scaling out our AI to keep up with this demand, thus an extra round was required to support this client growth without raising a full Series B.”

ConverseNow has assisted restaurants in increasing same-store sales by up to 30%, increasing average ticket prices by up to 20%, and providing up to 12 hours of extra labour per shop every week.

“With the customers we’re now working with, we’ve seen tremendous outcomes.” “Our engineering and product teams have made the unthinkable possible, and now it’s time to expand these efforts to deploy with more brands, in more locations,” said Rahul Aggarwal, ConverseNow’s Co-Founder, COO, and Chief Product Officer.

“We’ve created a strong product suite with an ever-expanding number of patents to train the AI faster, interface with key hardware and software suppliers, and deliver analytics for each operator to reveal never-before-seen insights.” We’re thrilled to be able to deliver this value to even more renowned restaurants.”