By RTN Staff - 9.17.2021
Restaurant technology management platform provider MarginEdge has closed an oversubscribed $18 million Series B investment. Schooner Capital led the round with follow-on investments from all major and strategic investors to-date, including Osage Venture Partners, Gordon Food Service’s innovation arm Relish Works and Nigel Morris.
The Virginia-based company secured a Series A funding round of $5 million in October 2019, as reported here, then an A2 in 2020. Aside from Schooner Capital, which led the round, this latest funding round is composed of repeat investors, bringing MarginEdge’s funding to date to over $35 million. Today, MarginEdge services over 2,500 independent restaurants in 47 states. The team is comprised of over 300 people in five countries and 29 states.
MarginEdge was founded in 2015 by restaurant veterans and entrepreneurs Bo Davis, Roy Phillips and Brian Mills. Phillips previously served an executive at Bloomin Brands while Davis previously launched a chain of conveyor belt-driven sushi restaurants called Wasabi. The company serves a diverse group of restaurant operators, from single units and small chains to large franchise and hospitality groups
The company’s stated mission is to “create a world where restaurant operators can focus on the business they love. By using best-in-class technology to eliminate unproductive paperwork and streamline the flow of operational data, MarginEdge is reimagining the back office and freeing restaurants to spend more time on their culinary offerings and guest experiences.” In a nutshell, the company offers solutions designed to automate tedious processes, connect systems and streamlines key activities, like inventory, cost-tracking, ordering and recipes.
A rapidly changing marketplace, labor shortages and a disrupted supply chain caused by the pandemic accelerated technology adoption across the industry. “As a restaurant owner myself, the goal with MarginEdge has always been simple – to help operators succeed – and this was never truer than through the insanity of the pandemic,” said Bo Davis, CEO and Co-Founder, in a press statement. “We feel deeply privileged to partner with operators across the country to help them run their business more efficiently and profitably. This funding will allow us to reach more restaurateurs, enhance our platform and exponentially grow our impact within the industry that so many of our team call home.”
For the past six years MarginEdge focused on “arming restaurant operators with technology to empower their businesses.” There’s no question that the digitization of historically time-consuming back-office paperwork practices and real-time data can help restaurateurs manage their business more profitably.
MarginEdge reportedly recovered to pre-pandemic growth in September of 2020 and is on track to end 2021 with “over 200% growth year-over-year.” The company claims to have processed over 3 million invoices from its clients, amounting to $4 billion in annual sales.
