GoTab expands into Canada, unveils new way to speed up online ordering

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It has been a newsy two months for Ballston-based restaurant commerce platform GoTab.

The company, located at 901 N. Stuart Street above the Ballston Metro station, is crossing international borders into the land of hockey and maple syrup, bringing its contactless ordering and payment platform to Canada.

Meanwhile, 2022 is looking to be a big year for sales, as it aims to process more than $1 billion in sales at restaurants, bars and sports and entertainment venues. To facilitate all those sales, it has added a new feature to eliminate one hassle of smartphone ordering — punching in payment details — and is working to establish itself in the hotel industry.

The northward expansion, announced last week, has already yielded fruit for the six-year-old startup. GoTab has a new partnership with a Canadian company called Baseline Payments, which sees the technology as a way to help restaurant operators and front-of-house staff.

“We are excited for GoTab to enter the Canadian market and see tremendous opportunity for its innovative technology,” said Marc Weber, business development vice-president for Baseline Payments, in a statement. “Our mission aligns perfectly with GoTab’s vision: to make life simpler for operators and allow them to provide a superior level of service.”

Canada is not the only new frontier for GoTab. The company is also working with Mastercard to get rid of the need to punch in credit and debit card details or remember passwords.

Mastercard customers can choose to have their information saved to the credit card company’s platform called Click to Pay. When checking out with retailers, restaurants and venues — online or in-person — that accepts Mastercard, they can use the Click to Pay icon to checkout without pulling out their card.

“We strive to help our operators enhance the guest experience,” GoTab CEO Tim McLaughlin said in a statement. “Mastercard Click to Pay is the perfect solution to simplify and make the checkout process easier, faster, and completely seamless.”

The new option first launched at the Stone Brewing taproom in Richmond late last month.

“We’ve had a very successful run with GoTab and Mastercard Click to Pay across all of our taprooms and bistros,” said Gregg Frazer, VP of Hospitality for Stone Brewing. “Our guests were already big fans of GoTab, but the convenience and security of Click to Pay made the payment experience even better.”

This year, GoTab is looking to expand beyond restaurants and bars entirely and get into — and strengthen its presence within — the hotel industry.

That comes as the hotel business, hit hard by the pandemic, is trying to embrace new technologies to streamline processes like check-in. But the industry is projected to see more growth this year, driven by an uptick in domestic leisure travel, less restricted international travel and a return to the office.

“There are so many opportunities to modernize systems within the hospitality industry and utilize GoTab’s technology for guest amenity programs, in-room dining, common indoor and outdoor spaces [and] rooftop bars,” said Deborah Tappan, GoTab’s new Director of Hospitality Management, in a statement. “The options are endless.”