The latest funding round was led by Iconiq Growth and included new investment from Tiger Global, DST, KKR, Prosus, EQT Growth, and Coatue, as well as financing from existing investors including 83North, Highland Europe, Goldman Sachs Growth Equity, EQT Ventures, and Vintage Investment Partners.

Wolt’s total financing now stands at $856m, although the company has not disclosed its current valuation.

“We raised this round of financing to further strengthen our balance sheet, allowing us to think long-term and double down on building even stronger positions across our markets while continuing to expand our offering beyond the restaurant,” said Miki Kuusi, CEO and Co-founder of Wolt.

Wolt was launched in 2015 with just 10 restaurant partners. Since then, it has expanded to 23 countries and 129 cities and, in the past year, has moved beyond restaurants and takeaways into the grocery and retail sectors – selling anything from cosmetics to pet food and pharmaceuticals.

“We operate in an extremely competitive and well-funded industry, and this round allows us to have a long-term mindset when it comes to doubling down on our different markets,” added Kuusi. “Despite the turbulence of 2020, we’ve remained focused on growth, tripling our revenue to a preliminary $345m against a net loss of $45m. Compared to the $662m in new capital that we’ve raised during the past year, this puts us into a strong position for investing in our people, technology, and markets when thinking about the next few years ahead.”

The post Food delivery company Wolt picks up $530m in funding appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

The product suite features four work meal benefits and perks. The first is ‘DashPass for Work’, an extension of the app’s subscription service, providing employees with unlimited free delivery fees and reduced service fees from restaurants across DoorDash and Caviar.

The second is ‘Expensed Meals’, meaning businesses can offer meal credits to their employees to expense their food orders on DoorDash or Caviar within the company’s specific set of rules. Within this, a company can set controls over how employees are able to spend, including day and time restrictions.

Then there is ‘Group Orders’. This feature enables employees working together in offices to group orders from preselected restaurants into one shopping cart and have these orders individually wrapped and labelled with the employees’ name.

Finally, DoorDash for Work enables employers to provide their staff with ‘Employee Gift Cards’ to give them a treat.

“DoorDash for Work serves all work meal occasions for remote employees and employees who have transitioned back into the office. Our meal options extend across our entire leading restaurant selection on DoorDash and Caviar in the US and Canada, with vast geographic coverage, and a differentiated product mix,” said Broderick McClinton, Head of DoorDash for Work, in a blog post. “To date, we’ve worked with a range of clients from Fortune 100 companies to SMBs including essential businesses like hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and schools, as well as professional service firms, technology companies and banks.”

The post DoorDash launches corporate food delivery program appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Wasabi has teamed up with Bink, a loyalty app, to ensure that customers are able to earn rewards whenever they make a qualifying purchase with a linked payment product. Bink’s ‘Payment Linked Loyalty’ platform is linked with Acteol’s Single Customer View to identify and reward customers every time they shop. The technology links into a partner’s – in this case, Wasabi’s – website and channels to provide the experience.

“We know that Wasabi customers are loyal – weve seen that as weve opened up and welcomed back many regular visitors for takeaways,” said Brendan McKeown, IT Director at Wasabi. “Were also constantly on the look-out for clever, new ways to make our customer experience better and to reward people for that loyalty, so its great to be able to partner with Bink.  Their technology allows customers to easily build up loyalty rewards and never miss out.”

Wasabi customers will be able to make use of the functionality in Q3 2020 through Bink’s mobile app, before rolling it out on ‘other acquisition channels’ later in the year and into 2021.

The post Wasabi to deliver frictionless rewards for customers appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

The robot-on-a-rail (ROAR), named Flippy, has been created by Miso Robotics. It will be deployed in a bid to increase production speeds, better manage staff, and to introduce added health and safety to the cooking process.

“With 100 years of quick service success, the time has never been more perfect to envision what the next century of White Castle and the restaurant industry looks like. Miso Robotics understood where we could improve and stay true to White Castles brand of taste, innovation and best-in-class dining,” said Lisa Ingram, White Castle CEO. “A great customer and employee experience is in our DNA, and we are thrilled to bring the future into our kitchen with solutions that will transform the industry and make the White Castle experience all that it can be for generations to come.”

Flippy ROAR will be deployed by White Castle later this year and will be tested for speed, taste, quality, and how seamlessly it integrates with the chain’s backend point-of-service (POS) platform ahead of a wider integration.

“Miso Robotics couldnt be more excited to bring Flippy ROAR into White Castle,” said Buck Jordan, CEO and Co-founder of Miso Robotics. “Artificial intelligence and robotics bring a very real opportunity to continuously enhance the cooking process and optimise taste for restaurants.”

The post White Castle to trial robot cook appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

The past few months has seen a massive growth in online dating, with people around the world forced to stay at home in response to the covid-19 pandemic. Tinder recorded over 3bn swipes on 29 March – its biggest single day so far – and Westfield is keen to celebrate those that swiped right on their possible Mr. or Mrs. Right.

The pair of shopping centres has teamed up with venues such as Pastaio, Pasta Remoli, and Bat & Ball to offer free first dates until 2 August for the first 100 daters who share screen grabs of their lockdown virtual dates.

“While virtual calls and meet ups have been crucial over the past few months to stay connected with family, friends and colleagues, there’s nothing quite like meeting up in real life,” said Alyson Hodkinson, General Manager at Westfield Stratford City. “Partnering with our restaurants to host first real life dates for those who have been meeting virtually whilst on lockdown is a fun way to welcome people back to our centres and we’re delighted to be able to provide new couples with a safe and welcome space to get to know each other better.”

The post Westfield offers virtual daters free post-lockdown real-life date appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

TheFork will use Bookatable to consolidate its existing markets and expand into the UK, Germany, Austria, Finland, and Norway. The 14,000 restaurants available to book on Bookatable will join the 67,000 already on TheFork.

“We are happy to add Bookatable by Michelin to the TripAdvisor family. This agreement allows us to continue expanding our business geographically, while offering an even more valuable service to restaurants and diners alike,” said Bertrand Jelensperger, senior vice president of TripAdvisor Restaurants and CEO of TheFork. “We’ll soon make Michelin-selected bookable restaurants more visible on our platforms to better serve our users and drive the right customers to each restaurant.”

The content side of the deal will see all 14,000 of the restaurants selected by the Michelin Guide inspectors worldwide identified with their Star, Bib Gourmand, and Plate distinctions on the TripAdvisor website and apps. On top of that, 4,000 restaurants across Europe will be made bookable on TheFork and on the digital Michelin Guide platform

“With our more than 120 years of experience making gastronomic guides which provide restaurant recommendations based on independent, expert inspectors, this strategic partnership between Michelin and TripAdvisor will offer unprecedented visibility to the establishments listed in the Michelin Guide selections around the world,” said Scott Clark, member of the Michelin Group executive committee. “By combining the Michelin Guide’s unique restaurant curation and selection criteria with TripAdvisor’s comprehensive travel planning platform, we will be able to make the Michelin Guide’s selections accessible to a much larger number of diners around the world.” 

The post TripAdvisor acquires Bookatable, enters content partnership with Michelin appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

The AR experience, created by marketing and communications agency Clarity, features secret menus, cocktail insights from Be At One bartenders, and access to three limited edition cocktails. The functionality has launched with the Be At One Christmas menu.

The aim of the campaign is to better engage customers, encourage new visits, drive loyalty, and increase Christmas sales and bookings by further integrating the existing Be At One into the cocktail buying process.

“In a such a competitive market, it’s really important that we work on continually evolving the Be at One guest experience to stay relevant,” said Abby Brockwell, head of marketing at Be At One. “It’s been fantastic working with the team at Clarity.  They have been critical in helping us develop an innovative use of AR to integrate seamlessly with our rewards platform, in a way that is so true to the Be at One brand and genuinely adds value to our guests experience.”

The post Be At One launches AR menu alongside Bacardi appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

The survey of 202 people in senior management positions at restaurants found that 63 per cent of them see find more success on Facebook than on Facebook-owned app Instagram – where just 35 per cent see better ROI.

On the back of this, the restaurant owners were asked how they manage customer loyalty, with 48 per cent offering discounts, 40 per cent a free drink or meal, and 21 per cent inviting customers to exclusive events. However, just 26 per cent said they track customer loyalty.

“There is a huge untapped opportunity for restaurants to use social media to reward their customers, and increase loyalty. The best reward programs are the ones that understand customer behaviour. With so many customers on social media, it’s the perfect platform to tap into. If you’re looking for inspiration of restaurants that do social media well, take a look at Pret A Manger (on facebook and Instagram) and Wildwood (facebook and Instagram). Both companies have an engaged, loyal audience and use social platforms to reward their customers and let them know about special offers,” said Jurgen Ketel, managing director at Givex.

 “If your restaurant is measuring engagement on social media, it should also be rewarding it to increase loyalty. Any customer that interacts with your brand, by sharing a post on social media, referring new customers or writing a review, should be rewarded. It’s cost-effective, and it can encourage customers to choose you instead of your competitors, over and above pricing.”

The post Restaurants find Facebook to be the most effective social media marketing platform appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

The PepsiCo Foodservice Digital Lab’s focus is on teaching operators how to identify and deploy technology solutions that benefit their businesses by providing digital insights, digital playbooks, digital activation, and digital innovation.

The food and beverage giant will share unique insights with its customers, provide operators with solutions to make digital tools ‘approachable, achievable, and effective’ for all businesses, partner with operators to optimise the execution and activation of digital solutions, and experiment with the latest digital innovations.

“The digital age has disrupted everything – including the way people order, eat and experience food and beverages,” said Scott Finlow, chief marketing officer of PepsiCo Foodservice. “PepsiCo is helping our customers stay ahead of the curve in regard to understanding the latest technology and consumer trends impacting the foodservice industry. With the customer-focused Digital Lab, we created a one-stop service for operators to access the resources and knowledge needed to drive a better consumer experience and impactful business results in the digital era.”

To help setup the Lab, PepsiCo worked with partners, such as Grubhub, to identify the areas that needed work within the online ordering and delivery space. It also partnered with loyalty and digital customer engagement providers, such as Mobivity, to find opportunities to improve incremental occasions for brands and deliver personalised experiences.

The post PepsiCo launches Digital Lab to help restaurants succeed in the digital world appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

According to Yext research, which involved a survey of 2,000 UK smartphone users who search for restaurants online, 27 per cent of people look for tables ‘on-the-go’.

Of all those searching for restaurants, just 20 per cent begin their journeys with the restaurant’s own website. Instead, 50 per cent start with a search engine, 12 per cent begin with map apps, seven per cent get going on review sites, and five per cent start off on delivery sites.

“Third-party services such as these have enabled consumers to make more informed decisions on-the-go,” said Jon Buss, MD UK at Yext. “This shift is impacting the restaurant more than any other. An average restaurant may see over 10 times the amount of traffic happening across these new experiences compared to just 2.7 times in other industries.”

The research also found that there has been a shift in what consumers are searching for when looking for somewhere to eat. 51 per cent of people now search by food type, compared to 45 per cent in 2017. Meanwhile, 13 per cent now search for specific food items.

Meanwhile, 81 per cent of consumers include attribute terms, such as ‘takes reservations’ and ‘gluten-fee option’, in their search query. And 12 per cent expect this information to be at their fingertips one hour before they visit or pick-up an order from a restaurant.

Yext also recently carried out a separate study of 400 marketing decision makers which found that 89 per cent of hospitality marketers agree that improving web listings is crucial for their organisation in order to increase sales. And the opportunity is clear with 37 per cent of consumers looking for a restaurant online every week.

“Restaurant chains have to start tackling some of the big questions when it comes to data architecting,” said Lee Zucker, head of industry, food services & hospitality at Yext. “It’s no longer enough to promote the brand on its own, or simply list menu items on a page inside the restaurant’s website. Restaurants have to be able to publish the information customers want across the whole network of sites and apps they use day-to-day. We see that when this is done properly, there’s significant ROI for restaurant brands across all segments from QSR to fine dining.”

The post Restaurant searching is becoming increasingly mobile and search engine-based appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.