Ballston Restaurant Tech Startup Nabs $6 Million in New Investment

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Ballston-based GoTab, a startup focused on the restaurant and hospitality business, has announced a fresh fundraising round.

The company says it has raised $6 million from a variety of investors, including restaurant, real estate and tech executives. The new funding will allow GoTab to “enhance its innovative technology and further bridge the gap between contactless dining and full-service hospitality.”

GoTab not only facilitates to-go orders, but it also allows in-person diners to place their orders without picking up a menu or talking to a server. It allows restaurant patrons to scan a QR code on their phones, order online and pay — “all without downloading an application or interacting with a server.”

The company has been on a tear since the start of the pandemic, as restaurants used to serving seated guests scrambled to fulfill a crush of takeout and delivery orders, while figuring out how to make the in-person dining experience safer. It now has hundreds of clients across 31 states, according to a press release.

“The new investment comes on the heels of a banner Labor Day weekend, when GoTab saw the highest number of transactions processed by operators since the platform’s creation in 2016,” the company said.

“We are excited for the possibilities that this new round of investment brings,” said GoTab CEO Tim McLaughlin, in a statement. “GoTab has helped countless operators adapt their hospitality model and turn a corner despite the current challenges they are facing. We are confident that further integrations and partnerships with best-of-breed technology will bring even more innovation and success to our operators.”

More from the press release:

Offering contactless ordering and payment since 2016, GoTab is helping hospitality operators rethink their service model, especially as they adapt to rapidly evolving regulations and consumer expectations. Early adopters such as Stone Brewing, Barcelona Wine Bar and Ballast Point Brewing Company have been able to leverage GoTab to optimize their servers’ time, work and interactions with customers to ensure a better guest experience. GoTab creates an efficient and hospitable environment for guests while freeing up front-of-house staff from low-impact tasks and allowing them to allocate more time to maintain proper safety guidelines which benefits both the operators and the guests.

With this new round of funding, GoTab is developing partnerships and facilitating integrations with other innovative best-of-breed hospitality tech platforms, all designed to ensure operators can optimize their business model and adapt swiftly to operational changes. Currently underway is the rollout of GoTab’s Mobile POS; i.e., contactless ordering and payment features for servers, making every guest transaction effortless, convenient and contact-free.

A market leader in features set, GoTab is currently the only self-service platform with native features for opening a digital tab, sharing and splitting the tab and calculating tips among friends, and keeping the tab open until it’s time to settle. The GoTab system is designed to be an integrated or stand-alone service, requiring minimal setup and a nominal per transaction percentage for operators, providing high-touch hospitality without the high-end price tag. It requires no additional hardware, software or support costs and works seamlessly for takeout and delivery service, providing the same ease and convenience as in-venue dining.