Allset raises $5M to help restaurants deliver a more efficient dining experience

By Anthony Ha for TechCrunch

Allset has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Greycroft.

The startup’s goal is to eliminate most of the wait time that comes with eating out. You make a reservation through the Allset smartphone app, and when you do, you also order your food and pay for the meal. Ideally, that means you should get your food within five minutes of arriving at the restaurant, and you should be out the door within 30 minutes.

That kind of in-and-out experience might sound like it eliminates some of the joy from dining in restaurants — what about chatting with the waiter about what to order, or lingering at the table to wrap up a good conversation?

Unfortunately, we don’t always have as much time as we want to eat out. Maybe we need to hustle to our next meeting after lunch, or scarf down some dinner before rushing to a movie screening. Allset makes the meal a faster process, and also a more predictable one — so it doesn’t take 20 minutes longer than expected because you couldn’t flag down your waiter to get the check.

CEO Stas Matviyenko has argued that this helps restaurants too, because it allows them to serve more diners and bring in customers who might otherwise think they’re too busy. In fact, Allset says it now works with more than 700 restaurants in nine cities, including San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles.

“Allset allows full service restaurants to finally take advantage of the consumer’s love affair with the on-demand economy,” said Greycroft’s Bo Peabody in the funding announcement. (Peabody also co-owns the Mezze Restaurant Group.)

Allset has raised a total of $8.35 million. Andreessen Horowitz, Vaizra Investments,Compound, FJ Labs, and SMRK VC Fund also participated in the Series A.