Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Feb 11, 2015 9:45:28 GMT -6
variety.com/2015/digital/news/jared-leto-will-i-am-jon-favreau-invest-in-dining-app-reserve-1201430992/
Jared Leto, Will.i.am, Jon Favreau Invest in Dining App Reserve
Reserve has a few more celebrities checking in to support the restaurant app.
Jared Leto, Will.i.am and Jon Favreau are among the company’s latest individual investors to back the service in a $15 million round of Series A financing that also includes talent agency WME.
Reserve enables users with the company’s app on Apple or Android devices to book tables at eateries in Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco and New York and automatically pay for meals in order to cut the time it takes to wait for checks or have credit cards processed by waiters. At the end of the meal the itemized receipt is dropped off at the table with a card letting diners know the check is paid.
Restaurants supporting Reserve in L.A. include Bestia, Tar & Roses and Petty Cash Taqueria.
Reserve was conceived by CEO and co-founder Greg Hong and Joe Marchese after going out to dinner and realizing that there had to be a better way to deal with the overall restaurant experience, Hong told Variety.
“From finding a great restaurant to getting a table to paying the check at the end, with Reserve we aim to making dining better at every step,” Hong said. “One of my favorite parts of the Reserve experience is payment — it’s just a much more elegant ending to the meal when the check arrives already paid. You don’t have to pull out your wallet or worry about calculating the tip. Reserve takes care of all of that for you, as if you were a regular or a celebrity with a house account at the restaurant. We’ve really seen this resonate with our diners as well.”
Overall, the venture has signed up more than 110 restaurants to support the service in its four cities since launching three months ago.
The financing was led by Human Ventures Capital, a new firm founded by Reserve’s Marchese, as well as Expa, who helped design the app. Lowercase Capital, Advancit Capital, Sherpa Ventures, institutional investors SV Angel, Venture51 and Visionnaire Ventures also participated.
The Series A brings Reserve’s total amount of funding to $17.3 million.
Leto and Will.i.am are known for their investments in digital startups, while Favreau helped launch The Counter burger chain.
Company intends to use the financing to bring its dining experience to more restaurant partners and diners, in more cities and on more devices, according to Hong.
“Many of our new investors became interested in coming on board when they realized we are serious about making concierge treatment available to anyone, for any meal,” Hong told Variety. “From the very beginning we had a group of well-connected investors and a lot of very passionate early diners, who started a trend of posting about their Reserve meals on social media.”
Jared Leto, Will.i.am, Jon Favreau Invest in Dining App Reserve
Reserve has a few more celebrities checking in to support the restaurant app.
Jared Leto, Will.i.am and Jon Favreau are among the company’s latest individual investors to back the service in a $15 million round of Series A financing that also includes talent agency WME.
Reserve enables users with the company’s app on Apple or Android devices to book tables at eateries in Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco and New York and automatically pay for meals in order to cut the time it takes to wait for checks or have credit cards processed by waiters. At the end of the meal the itemized receipt is dropped off at the table with a card letting diners know the check is paid.
Restaurants supporting Reserve in L.A. include Bestia, Tar & Roses and Petty Cash Taqueria.
Reserve was conceived by CEO and co-founder Greg Hong and Joe Marchese after going out to dinner and realizing that there had to be a better way to deal with the overall restaurant experience, Hong told Variety.
“From finding a great restaurant to getting a table to paying the check at the end, with Reserve we aim to making dining better at every step,” Hong said. “One of my favorite parts of the Reserve experience is payment — it’s just a much more elegant ending to the meal when the check arrives already paid. You don’t have to pull out your wallet or worry about calculating the tip. Reserve takes care of all of that for you, as if you were a regular or a celebrity with a house account at the restaurant. We’ve really seen this resonate with our diners as well.”
Overall, the venture has signed up more than 110 restaurants to support the service in its four cities since launching three months ago.
The financing was led by Human Ventures Capital, a new firm founded by Reserve’s Marchese, as well as Expa, who helped design the app. Lowercase Capital, Advancit Capital, Sherpa Ventures, institutional investors SV Angel, Venture51 and Visionnaire Ventures also participated.
The Series A brings Reserve’s total amount of funding to $17.3 million.
Leto and Will.i.am are known for their investments in digital startups, while Favreau helped launch The Counter burger chain.
Company intends to use the financing to bring its dining experience to more restaurant partners and diners, in more cities and on more devices, according to Hong.
“Many of our new investors became interested in coming on board when they realized we are serious about making concierge treatment available to anyone, for any meal,” Hong told Variety. “From the very beginning we had a group of well-connected investors and a lot of very passionate early diners, who started a trend of posting about their Reserve meals on social media.”