Foodservice management is a sub-category of the Foodservice sector. See all definitions of FoodTech and its categories here.

The “foodservice management” FoodTech category regroups startups improving restaurant management. They help restaurateurs improve operations from their online presence, marketing, customer feedback, procurement and inventory management to transparency.

2020 has been a hard year for the foodservice industry. And startups working in this space, notably those who are working toward a more digital restaurant have also had a hard time. However, this period may turn out to have been a boon for them in the long term. Indeed, never before has a period shown so dramatically how important it was for a restaurant to be agile in its operations, from being able to move to delivery platforms to be able to manage contactless payments when restaurants reopened.

Procurement

Beyond the restaurant itself, a new area is attracting most of the attention: procurement. From online marketplaces such as Choco to integrated disruptors such as Cheetah, the space is crowded with new ventures that are looking to change the way restaurant owners source their ingredients and establish relationships with producers. As many restaurants have changed hands and the new generation of owners is more and more looking to manage restaurants as digital companies, we can expect this ecosystem to boom in the coming years.

Key startups to consider

• Choco, the European leader in procurement digitalization
• Deliverect, a Belgium startup that integrates online orders from food delivery channels into restaurants’ POS to improve their operational flow
• Flipdish, an Irish startup that helps on-demand food businesses create branded food ordering systems, websites, and apps
• Zenchef, a B2B Saas booking management system and marketing automation software for restaurants.

DigitalFoodLab’s additional insights

• 15/06/2021 – The future of the restaurant
• 24/04/2020 – Foodservice startups in trouble
• 09/04/2020 – Foodservice procurement startups are pivoting to deliver food to consumers