Czech restaurant fee app Selection QR has raised €1.5m in a seed spherical led by Czech VC Presto Ventures with participation from Seedcamp, the outstanding early-stage UK VC agency. It says it needs to tackle Sunday — the French restaurant fee firm that’s raised greater than $100m — particularly now that its competitor has been pressured to pull out of some markets and lay off workers.
“We are able to compete with them on the identical stage whereas spending 10 instances much less cash,” says Alex Ilyash, Selection QR’s founder and CEO. “We’re an jap European startup and have a lot much less value on gross sales and wonderful builders who work arduous. We’re humble and hungry… whereas Sunday is hype and spends an excessive amount of cash.”
What does Selection QR do?
Selection QR was launched in 2021 and provides a platform connecting hospitality companies with their clients. Eating places can register within the startup’s system and create a web based menu totally free, for instance, after which the corporate reaches out to supply them a paid subscription to extra providers.
The corporate’s thought is to develop into a one-stop-shop for the communication between eating places and their visitors, by means of QR funds, net pages, desk reservations, desk ordering and web sites for takeaway and supply.
The corporate operates within the Czech Republic and Poland and has purchasers all around the world, together with within the US, Hungary and Germany. It presently employs 40 folks and remains to be hiring.
What’s the market like?
QR codes have been used for years in Asia to current menus and acquire funds, however in Western nations it took the pandemic to spark a QR growth. Over the past couple of years, a number of new European startups have began to supply comparable providers: France’s Sunday, The Netherlands’ Orderli and Eire’s Flipdish.
Who’s investing in Selection QR?
- Presto Ventures (Czech Republic; lead investor)
- Seedcamp (UK)
- Reflex Capital (Czech Republic)
- J&T Ventures (Czech Republic)
- Purple Ventures (Czech Republic)
What’s subsequent?
Selection QR plans to make use of the funding for European enlargement, together with into the markets that Sunday has introduced it’s going to depart: Spain, Italy and Portugal. It plans to attach 50k eating places to its app inside the subsequent three years.
Sifted’s take
Though the worst a part of the pandemic and the sanitary restrictions are (hopefully) behind us, eating places may not need to quit too simply on the simplicity and luxury of QR codes. The query is which of the startups providing seemingly the identical service will win buyer hearts.
Sunday’s loss although, may be Selection QR’s acquire: the Czech firm has succeeded in connecting 7,500 eating places on an funding of €1m, whereas Sunday related solely 4,000 eating places on an funding of $125m over the identical interval. It additionally plans to supply a a lot wider number of providers to its clients, which could make it extra indispensable.
Zosia Wanat is Sifted’s central and jap Europe reporter, primarily based in Warsaw. She tweets from @zosiawanat