FinTech firm facilitating QR code restaurant payments Sunday raised a $24m seed round.
The seed-funding round saw investors, including New Wave, a venture capital firm backed by French telecoms billionaire Xavier Niel, and Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management.
Created by the founders of Big Mamma restaurants Victor Lugger, Tigrane Seydoux and Christine de Wendel, Sunday was launched to help eateries cut the commission pay on customer bills by at least half as well as increase the tables turn over rate through a new contactless payment method.
Following its funding round, the firm plans to sign up a lot of restaurants and capitalise on the market right now as they start re-opening amid the ongoing pandemic.
While the firm started with offering a way to check the menu on one’s smartphone to avoid touching anything, it then ventured into payments by connecting the code directly to the cash register system. Foodies who scan the QR code can check their tab and pay directly from their phone, therefore, eliminating the need to wait for the bill.
With the aim to develop a fast checkout for restaurants, the startup merges online checkout with offline, brick-and-mortar checkout. Sunday supports Oracle Micros, Brinks, Tiller, Zelty, Revo and CashPad, among others.
After trialling the new payment method in Big Mamma restaurants when they reopened after lockdowns last year, the company saw that 80% of customers chose to pay using the QR code. This saved the restaurant 15 minutes, allowing food joints to do more business. Moreover, the average spend per head increased by 10%.
Furthermore, guests can split the bill directly at the table through the code. By using Sunday, restauranteurs cut costs to 0.5% per transaction compared with the usual 1-2% charged by banks.
Commenting on the firm’s upcoming plans, de Wendel said, “The long-term vision is how can we disrupt all of the physical retail payments, the same way that Uber changed the way you pay for taxis.”
The startup is already working with more than 1,300 restaurants in Europe and De Wendel plans to double the company’s teams in three months.
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