SoftBank leads $120M Series C investment in Ordermark to help independent restaurants thrive

Ordermark, a Los Angeles, CA-based food tech startup and one of the leading providers of online ordering management solutions for restaurants and virtual restaurant concepts, has closed a $120 million in Series C funding round led by Softbank Vision Fund 2. The round was joined by returning investor Act One Ventures. Ordermark will use the funding to help more restaurants transition to online ordering during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Founded in 2017 by Alex Canter, Jay Fuhr, Michael Jacobs, and Paul Allen, Ordermark addresses a big and growing challenge for restaurants: online ordering services, which drive tremendous revenue to restaurants, each operate differently with their own technology and procedures for handling orders. This makes adding new online ordering services costly and time consuming for restaurants.

“2020 has been a tough year for restaurants and that’s why we’re focused on providing products and services to help keep their doors open,” said Alex Canter, Ordermark CEO and Co-Founder. “With 92% of restaurant traffic now off-premise, this funding gives us the opportunity to provide more restaurants with innovative ways to reach more consumers. The restaurant industry is in the midst of the e-commerce phase, where restaurants must get creative by embracing technology and new sources of revenue generation to reach customers outside of their four walls.”

Ordermark’s online order management technology, used by thousands of independent and chain restaurants nationwide, consolidates mobile orders across online ordering services and sends them to a single printer — enabling omnichannel ordering and delivery.

“We believe Ordermark’s leading technology platform and innovative virtual restaurant concepts are transforming the restaurant industry,” said Jeff Housenbold, Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers. “Alex and the Ordermark team have a deep understanding of the challenges that independent restaurants face. We are excited to support their mission to help independent restaurants optimize online ordering and generate incremental revenue from under-utilized kitchens.”

Ordermark also operates Nextbite, one of the earliest and fastest-growing pioneers in the virtual restaurant space. With Nextbite, qualifying restaurants can offer popular delivery-only brands, including HotBox by Wiz, a partnership with Wiz Khalifa, out of their existing restaurant space. Powered by Ordermark’s technology, Nextbite’s turnkey delivery-only brands result in substantial incremental revenue growth for restaurants.

The rise of ghost kitchens and virtual restaurants often referred to as the 3rd wave of food delivery, have paved the way for a larger addressable market for online food delivery. Virtual brands empower independent restaurants to increase their revenue and profitability by offering virtual-only menus through online delivery channels.