ChowNow, a direct ordering and marketing company for independent restaurants, announced today it acquired Cuboh, a six-year-old startup that helps restaurants manage online orders from multiple platforms.
On Wednesday, I talked to ChowNow CEO Chris Webb about the acquisition and about the company’s future. Online ordering will always be ChowNow’s bread and butter, he said, but it’s working to become a platform for much more.
“No one that we know or see in the market is solely focused on building a platform that goes beyond the four walls of a restaurant to support everything else they do,” Webb said. “And that list of ‘everything’ has grown a lot since Covid: online ordering, catering, delivery, automated marketing, a CRM system, loyalty.”
Cuboh’s platform consolidates orders from food delivery services like DoorDash and Uber (and, of course, ChowNow) into one dashboard, giving restaurants easy access to things like menu and price management across platforms. ChowNow will integrate these features and give Cuboh’s 2,000 restaurant customers access to its premium product suite.
Cuboh also connects to most major point of sale systems, including Clover, Lightspeed, and Revel. Post acquisition, ChowNow’s platform — previously only integrated with Toast and Square — adds connections to 10 more systems.
ChowNow enjoyed what was arguably its brightest moment in 2020 as restaurants hastily moved operations online. By taking direct orders, charging no commissions, and sharing diner data with restaurants, it easily positioned itself as a more hospitable option. Food & Wine named it a 2021 Game Changer, Fast Company named it one of 2022’s Most Innovative Companies, and plenty of diners, restaurants, and, of course, ChowNow’s competition took note.
In an interview for this newsletter over the summer, Webb explained how he viewed ChowNow’s future. To me, it felt uncertain — not in terms of the business, which was self-sustaining and cash-flow positive. It was more like the company was trying to answer a big question for a new era of operations: “What do restaurants need now, and how can we adjust our offerings to help them?”
“A lot of early stage companies talk about product-market fit constantly,” Webb said then. “I find that it’s almost talked about as, once you have it, you never lose it. That’s just not true, you have to work to keep it.”
This week’s acquisition will probably help. Cuboh’s team of 30, based in Victoria, British Columbia, joins ChowNow while maintaining its office in Canada.
Cuboh is ChowNow’s first acquisition in 14 years of operation, but maybe not its last. “We can’t screw this one up,” Webb said, “Because then we can’t do any more.”
The rest of our recent interview appears below for paid subscribers. Our conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Congrats on the acquisition. Why did you do it?
Chris Webb, ChowNow: “Point of sale companies focus their time inside the restaurant’s four walls — front of house, back of house, staffing, payroll. Sometimes they think a bit beyond the four walls. But it’s always an afterthought, even after Covid.
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