Tech Hospitality Startup Bbot Secures $15 Million in Fresh Funding to Fuel Growth

By Adriaan Brits | Thursday, 22 July 2021 | Startup, Tech

Bbot, a New York-based hospitality startup company that provides restaurants with a way to manage payments and orders, announced it raised $15 million in new business funding from a venture capital (VC) company CRV.

Expanding Platform Capabilities and Improving Support for Restaurants

Including today’s Series A business funding round, Bbot raised $22.3 million. The startup company previously generated $7.3 million in seed funding. 

The hospitality business said it plans to use the funding to support additional growth, ramp up developer capabilities, and enhance its ecommerce platform.

"With this funding, we will continue to invest in creating the most advanced technology platform so our customers can focus on providing high-quality hospitality experiences, instead of worrying about the tools and integrations,” said Steve Simoni, CEO and co-founder of Bbot. 

Bbot says it has witnessed robust demand from developers to code their own extensions and applications. For this reason, the startup company also plans to use the funding to launch a self-service Bbot app store. The story will allow developers to use Bbot's existing fully-integrated software and payments platform to code their own extensions and apps. 

The startup company designs tech solutions to help restaurants to simplify their business operations and manage orders and payments. Founded in 2017 by three naval engineers, Bbot supports restaurants to shift to contactless ordering and payments. The product also helps hospitality businesses to better cope with the ongoing worker shortages. 

"Restaurateurs are always looking for new ways to provide excellent hospitality experiences. The way guests want to order and pay has changed forever, and the need for innovative technology that can help business owners compete in today's digital world affordably and easily is crucial,” Simoni added.

The startup company has witnessed the rapid growth of its hospitality business over the past 12 months. It has also attracted more than 700 customers and reached 85 employees across 14 states. Bbot will be listening to its customers when it comes to improving the payments and order platform, and expects the focus to be on new points of sales, loyalty integrations, food, and virtual brands, etc. 

"We've spent the last four years creating a solid base for our technology that we can build upon. We are now focused on expanding our platform so developers can integrate the technology for their restaurant clients and create custom offerings,” Simoni further noted.

Bbot’s app was ranked No.1 on “Hotel Tech Report's Global Best Mobile Ordering & Room Service Software list in the 2021 HotelTechAwards.” The company believes that some features it designed, such as the ability to order from your smartphone without ever having to walk up to the front desk counter, or ordering room service from your smartphone, have helped it to top the list.

For CRV’s general partner Reid Christian, Bbot’s platform offers an insight into the rapidly changing hospitality industry. He praised the company for delivering a fully integrated software and payments platform to enable both order and pay.

Christian said that the hospitality startup company also intends to use CRV’s funding to hire more talent and deliver additional product enhancements.

Summary

Hospitality startup company Bbot raised $15 million from VC business CRV to expand its platform capabilities, hire more talent, and further improve order and payment support for restaurants.

About the Author

Adriaan Brits

An analyst of global affairs, Adriaan has an MSC from Oxford, with diverse interests in the digital economy, entertainment, and business. He is a specialist trainer in advanced analytics and media.