Seated Stands Up With $30 Million Funding

NEW YORK — Seated, which operates a restaurant rewards platform, has acquired digital event booking platform VenueBook. Terms were not disclosed.

Seated also announced it has secured $30 million in venture funding, led by Insight Partners with participation from Craft Ventures, Greycroft, and Rho Capital Partners. Originally focused on dine-in bookings, Seated has evolved its business model in response to restaurants’ changing needs throughout the pandemic with the addition of pickup and delivery with Seated at Home, and now, Seated Events. These funds will be used to further build out Seated’s platform and improve performance and capabilities for new product developments.

Following the recent launch of pickup and delivery service Seated at Home, this strategic acquisition solidifies Seated as the only comprehensive platform for restaurants to enhance all three main sources of revenue: dine-in, pickup/delivery, and private events. Now restaurants can offer consumers and businesses rewards for booking all private events from smaller occasions like birthday parties and team dinners to large-scale celebrations like corporate happy hours and holiday parties.

“Events are not only an important part of a restaurant’s revenue stream, but they’re important for internal operations. Restaurant events help to increase employee retention because both front and back of the house employees are able to exercise creativity and tap into different skill sets while planning and executing events,” said Bo Peabody, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Seated and a long-time restaurant operator. “We are thrilled to be able to offer yet another way for restaurants to maximize their profitability. With Seated Events, Seated at Home, and Seated, restaurants can drive demand to their three primary sources of revenue in a single, easy to use rewards platform.”

It’s estimated that private events typically make up 10-15% of a restaurant’s revenue, and up to 20% of a restaurant’s profit. With the National Restaurant Association reporting that restaurants likely suffered a loss of more than $120 billion during the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic alone, Seated Events provides a seamless way for restaurants to begin rebuilding this critical revenue stream, allowing families or smaller groups of people who would like to take extra precautions while dining out to book private rooms.

“We are always looking for new ways to support restaurants’ profitability and longevity, and with the acquisition of VenueBook, Seated Events offers a new way for restaurants to drive demand in yet another revenue stream,” said Brice Gumpel, CEO and Co-Founder of Seated. “COVID-19 has proved to be one of the toughest challenges the restaurant industry has ever faced and this acquisition and new funding will help us refine our current products to ensure we’re doing whatever we can to help our restaurant partners keep their doors open and remain profitable.”

Building upon its success in New York City, Boston, Chicago, and Atlanta markets, this acquisition of VenueBook expands Seated’s presence to the New York tri-state area, Denver, San Francisco and Bay area, and Washington, D.C. and the surrounding region. Seated will also work with VenueBook’s stable of 120,000 professional event planners who can now book clients’ events on the platform.

“The last few months have proven to be incredibly difficult for restaurants, but Seated has continued to show up for its partners,” said Kelsey Recht, CEO and Founder of VenueBook. “VenueBook was built to make booking private and event spaces simple in order to help restaurants maximize revenue, and we’re thrilled to join Seated to support more restaurants through these challenging times.”