Czech restaurant-tech startup Choice has raised $7.1 million (€6.04 million) to expand across Southern Europe and accelerate the development of AI-powered tools.
👯 Founders: Alex Ilyash, Robert Novosad
📅 Founding year: 2020
🏭 Industry: Restaurant technology
💥 Problem: Restaurants operate in a highly dynamic market with structurally low margins and increasing operational complexity. Many lack the tools to efficiently manage online orders, reservations, delivery integrations, and marketing activities, and most cannot afford dedicated marketing teams or agencies.
📣 Solution: Choice provides a digital platform that helps restaurants manage their operations more efficiently. The platform integrates tools for online reservations, delivery services, QR payments at tables, and marketing management, while also introducing AI capabilities for analytics, content creation, and customer communication.
👥 Customers: Restaurants, cafés, and other food service businesses looking to streamline their digital operations.
🌱 Stage: Growth stage, with the startup recently reaching monthly profitability.
💰 Investment amount: $7.1 million (€6.04 million)
🚀 Funded by: Alea Capital Partners and Smartlink Partners, with participation from Reflex Capital, J&T Ventures, Presto Ventures, and Purple Ventures.
💡 It will be spent on: Accelerating expansion into Portugal, Spain, and Italy and further developing AI-powered digital services.
💬 In their own words:
“Our vision is to free restaurant staff’s hands using AI. Once Choice is connected, the software starts collecting data, creating content, and managing marketing activities to increase restaurant revenues and customer retention.” — Alex Ilyash
💪 Their specialty: Helping restaurants increase revenue and customer retention through automated digital operations and AI-powered marketing tools.
🔑 Business model: SaaS subscription platform with multiple pricing tiers.
👩🏫 Market: The European restaurant industry, which generates nearly €500 billion annually and is rapidly evolving due to the growth of delivery services, digital ordering, and cloud kitchens.
📊 Traction: Over 30,000 restaurants using the platform, more than 1.5 million monthly orders worth about $35 million, and more than $5 million in annual subscription revenue across nine European markets.
⚡ Competitors: Toast Inc., Lightspeed Commerce, Square, and GloriaFood
💰 Total Funding: €11.06 million
