Author: Corey Hines

Self-service kiosks are emerging as a way to give Click-and-Mortar™ consumers what they want, Bite CEO Brandon Barton said.

The technology can help employees improve customer satisfaction, cook food to a brand’s standards and accurately refill inventory, executives say.

AI is arguably the hottest technology in the restaurant space, with many operators exploring applications to ease pressure from inflation and rising labor, food, and occupancy costs.

“The whole use of AI at restaurants is accelerating,” said Brandon Barton, CEO of Bite, which makes AI-powered food-ordering kiosks. 

Many executives think the hype around AI is warranted. White Castle Vice President Jamie Richardson, for example, said the technology holds “unlimited” potential to improve operations, as well as employee and guest experience. 

But adopting AI requires “patience and perseverance — and a focus on remembering the larger goal you are trying to achieve,” he wrote in an email. That’s been White Castle’s experience with its Julia system, which communicates with drive-thru customers through SoundHound’s voice recognition software. 

A former private equity associate, Zach Ranen seems just as comfortable listing off seven-syllable sugar substitutes as talking about buyouts and balance sheets. As the cofounder of the protein bar company David, he gets to do both in equal parts. 

Restaurant interest in the technology is growing as labor costs rise. Bite said the fundraise will help it meet the demand.

Kiosk ordering provider Bite has raised $9 million to help it grow, the company announced Tuesday.

The Series A funding round led by Staley Capital is a big endorsement for Bite and for kiosks, which have seen growing interest from restaurants as they look to operate more efficiently amid rising costs.

“There’s always a natural inflection point when a nice-to-have becomes a must-have, and I think some of the macro explains that,” Bite CEO Brandon Barton said in an interview.

The kiosk provider will invest in scaling its solutions with new and existing partners and scaling its technology capabilities, including its patented AI solution that analyzes each order in real-time to offer personalized upsell recommendations.

Bite, a provider of kiosk solutions for fast-casual and quick-service restaurants, has secured $9 million in Series A funding. 

Bite’s self-service kiosk software provides the ability to drive digital ordering at fast-casual and quick-serve restaurants.  Bite’s in-store ordering platform currently helps more than 1,100 restaurant locations improve labor efficiencies and leverage powerful personalization, resulting in check sizes growing by an average of 20%. Bite’s software is highly customizable, user-friendly, and seamlessly integrates into existing tech stacks, ensuring improved order accuracy, increased throughput, and enhanced customer satisfaction.

“The restaurant industry is facing a very challenging environment, struggling to generate profits in the midst of an unprecedented labor shortage, rising minimum wages and cost inflation,” said Brandon Barton, CEO of Bite. “Bite’s self-service kiosk software gives restaurants the tools to succeed in this environment, by leveraging our technology for tasks that can be digitized and reallocating labor to higher priority responsibilities, including greeting guests, preparing food and managing the handoff of completed orders.” 

Barton added: “Coupled with our use of AI to personalize the ordering experience, we are also able to help offset increasing labor costs by driving higher average checks per order.”

More retailers are embracing in-store kiosk and mobile ordering for menu items — and seeing a corresponding lift in sales.