The company has seen rapid growth since the software release and launched funding round to support growth
Bistrochat, a company providing software to restaurants to manage bookings and loyalty, announced it raised $1 million US with a pre-series A round to expand in Hong Kong and the region.
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The Bistrochat software consolidates bookings from multiple apps into one Table Management System, allowing restaurant staff to view all bookings in one location. The app also offers a loyalty reward system that restaurants can use to encourage customers to continue to eat at their restaurants.
The software consolidates guests’ data from every source: staff entries, all booking channels and loyalty channels. It connects that data to the POS (point of sale) so all data can be viewed in one place. It also gives one complete picture about the guest, such as allergies or previously ordered menu items, to the staff so they serve them better. At a glimpse, you can see who is a VIP guest, who is on a date night, celebrating a birthday or coming with a dog. Restaurants can look at complete statistics for the whole venue or each patron.
Confirmations, updates and cancellation emails are sent directly to customers. Bistrochat’s built-in Artificial Intelligence (AI) understands their requests and replies to them 24/7. It’s a magic wand on auto-pilot that helps staff do a great job on the restaurant floor. By more effectively serving customers and offering loyalty rewards, restaurants can increase patrons’ loyalty, and marketing staff can target patrons with similar statistics for growth and expansion.
“We launched the software in Hong Kong and are excited about the rapid expansion we have had,” said Hacene Taibi, co-founder and CEO of Bistrochat. “We launched this funding round to accommodate the rapid growth and prepare for expansion. We are leading tech innovation in Asia, improving the customer’s journey in the food and beverage industry.”
Bistrochat was advised by lawyers from Slotine for the funding round. Slotine is a Hong Kong law firm specializing in cross-border business law.
In early 2021, Bistrochat was part of the SOSV Mobile Only Accelerator (MOX) program. SOSV is a global venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage startup developments offering revolutionary technology that promises the betterment of humanity and the planet or is from cross-border markets, notably in Asia, that are ripe for explosive growth.
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MOX is an accelerator program for consumer internet, focusing on mobile-first markets, including Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, South America and Eastern Europe. Bistrochat received $150,000 in funding and participated in a six-month accelerator program covering cross-border market entry and support through growth, business development and fundraising modules. Bistrochat was chosen for being “a restaurant management software for the chat age, with superior NLP capabilities.”
Bistrochat is also funded by the Hong Kong government’s Cyberport Program. Cyberport is focused on facilitating the growth of major technology trends such as FinTech, smart living, digital entertainment/e-sports and cybersecurity, as well as the emerging technologies of artificial intelligence, big data and blockchain, to foster the transformation of Hong Kong into a smart city, according to their website.