Industry leading platform supports restaurant industry growth through the pandemic era
Throughout the year, attitudes towards ordering styles changed, and Koala supported leading restaurant brands as they navigated the various waves of consumer preferences and COVID-19, offering a seamless user experience that provides comprehensive management capabilities for clients – leading to Koala’s highest growth year netting 2.8x year-over-year transaction growth.
Koala is an industry-leading platform that creates premium, customizable apps and websites for restaurants, and launched its platform against the backdrop of the restaurant tech evolution.
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Democratizing Technology
As COVID-19 changed customers’ ordering preferences, Koala knew the importance of expanding access to premium technology for brands. As restaurants were forced in and out of lockdowns, brands needed to adjust to different ordering styles – online ordering or app ordering for takeout, delivery, and pickup. Restaurants that had this technology in place were able to weather the storm, and restaurants without it had a much harder time. Koala can have a customized online ordering website or app ready to launch in weeks and at a reasonable cost, compared to its competitors.
“Tech is an ever-changing requirement. With the added challenges of COVID-19, our organization remained steadfast to helping our brands maintain the valuable connections they have established with their customers and the ease of ordering that guests have come to expect in these times,” said Brett Spiegel, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Koala. “Restaurant playbooks are changing, and with our fully scalable platform, brands are seeing larger increases in check sizes and conversions.”
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A Full Digital Ecosystem
Highlights for Koala in 2021 include the launch of their iPhone app, with MOD Pizza and Capital Taco. The app enables brands to make changes to layouts, styles, and key features via the cloud, eliminating the lengthy app submission process for updates. In addition, the app promotes dynamic cross-sell product recommendations.
The company continued improving its products, releasing more than 200 updates throughout the year, including QR code ordering, advanced delivery search, ghost kitchen support, and pickup via curbside and drive-thru.
The tech company also grew its portfolio by onboarding new brands, including TGI Fridays, Dave’s Hot Chicken, Capriotti’s, Macaroni Grill, Happy + Hale, and several more.
Koala supported more than 4,000 restaurant locations nationwide. For the calendar year 2021, Koala also added new integration partners and nearly doubled its team size.
“We are looking forward to maintaining the momentum we’ve built this year and forging into 2022 with our sights on more growth opportunities for our customers and their guests,” added Spiegel.