By Orit Naomi, RTN Staff - 3.12.2024
Loop, a San Francisco-based technology startup focused on improving restaurant back-office operations with an “automated delivery intelligence platform,” has announced the closure of a $6 million Seed funding round. The funding round was led by Base10 Partners, with Afore Capital also participating.
The funds will reportedly be channeled towards accelerating Loop’s growth and expanding its suite of products designed to address the complex back-office needs of restaurants. This investment comes at a time when third-party delivery services are becoming increasingly integral to the restaurant industry, contributing to over 25% of revenue for many brands. However, these services also introduce significant financial and operational challenges, including high commission rates and order inaccuracies, which Loop aims to mitigate.
Drawing on his experience as both a restaurateur and a software engineer at Uber, CEO Anand Karthik Tumuluru recognized the potential of utilizing third-party delivery data to correct mistakes and increase revenue. Together with co-founders Sundar Annamalai, who also boasts an engineering background at Uber, and Vinod Pachipulusu, a former Google engineer, Tumuluru embarked on a mission to demystify the complexities of third-party delivery data for restaurant operators. Determined to streamline the process of data management for the restaurant industry, the team launched Loop in 2022.
Loop’s AI-powered platform is already making waves in the industry, serving fast-growing brands across thousands of locations and reconciling over $100 million in restaurant transactions. By leveraging automation and AI technology, Loop enables restaurants to reduce their accounting expenses and gain a comprehensive understanding of their financial data. This includes detailed breakdowns of transactions, categorization of expenses, and visibility into marketing spend, commissions, taxes, and chargebacks.
The platform’s reconciliation process is designed to provide restaurants with a clear comparison of in-store POS sales to third-party platform sales, third-party sales versus payout, and payouts versus bank records. Additionally, Loop offers tools to help restaurants manage commission splits, make informed decisions about third-party delivery partnerships, and efficiently resolve chargebacks.
Beyond financial reconciliation, Loop’s product suite includes automated bookkeeping, a real-time dashboard and lost sales tracker, marketing solutions, and a Chat GPT-4 feature for backend operations inquiries. These tools collectively aim to simplify the complexity of delivery data management, enabling restaurants to deploy profitable off-premises strategies.
Loop’s integration with major third-party delivery services like DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, Postmates, and Olo further enhances its utility for restaurants. The platform’s issue discovery module and store performance tracking capabilities allow restaurant managers to identify and address operational and quality control problems before they escalate.
As third-party delivery continues to grow, Loop’s platform offers a promising solution for restaurants to navigate the associated costs and complexities. With its recent funding and strategic partnerships, Loop is well-positioned to broaden the scope of its platform and continue its mission to make third-party delivery as profitable as possible for restaurant operators of all sizes.
