News Briefs
- 4/14/2025
BlueCart Unveils Predictive Inventory, Menu Profitability Benchmarking, Vendor Payment Tools
BlueCart Inc., an all-in-one procurement and back-of-house solution for restaurants and vendors, announced a suite of powerful new features designed to supercharge restaurant profitability and streamline vendor adoption at scale.
This milestone product expansion, fueled by insights from over 14 years of Binwise beverage data and 10 years of BlueCart restaurant operations, comes at a time of record growth across the platform, with more than 125,000 restaurants leveraging BlueCart's ecosystem.
Predictive Inventory & Ordering
BlueCart's newly launched predictive ordering feature leverages historical depletion, real-time inventory levels, and seasonality trends to recommend precisely what and when to order, automatically adjusting for par levels and actual usage. This powerful functionality drives significant reductions in waste and over-ordering, helping operators cut food costs and run leaner kitchens.Menu Costing with Industry Benchmarking
For the first time, restaurants can benchmark the profitability of their own menu items against a network of 125,000 peers. Coupled with POS integrations, this enables data-backed decisions that maximize contribution margin per plate.QuickBooks Online Integration
BlueCart's QBO integration for both vendors and buyers simplifies cash flow planning, shortens payment cycles, and drives client utilization expansion through tighter financial alignment between procurement and accounting systems.Self-Onboarding for Vendors
With the launch of BlueCart's new self-onboarding flow, vendors can set up accounts and begin selling in under 24 hours (down from three days), slashing onboarding costs and accelerating network growth.Vendor Fee Pass-Through Option
Vendors can now opt to pass on payment processing fees, reducing financial friction and boosting adoption among large enterprise vendors who previously hesitated to absorb transaction costs.BlueCart's Endless Aisle — now the fastest-growing module on the platform, continues to scale rapidly. Its value proposition is revenue lift through expanded product access, not just cost savings. This shift has enabled the company to double its salesforce in 2025, increasing restaurant acquisition velocity.
Following recent enhancements, leading hospitality brands such as Hilton Hotels have more than doubled their usage of BlueCart, driven by the power of predictive tools and financial automation that support large, distributed teams.
Despite the recent divestiture of Restaurant Revolution Technology, BlueCart's newest features are already driving stronger adoption from restaurants and vendors, while helping everyone on the platform cut costs and operate more efficiently.
- 4/14/2025
REPORT: Nearly 80% of STR Say ‘No’ to Traditional Property Managers
New research from vacation rental management platform Hospitable reveals that independent short-term rental (STR) hosts are increasingly rejecting large, traditional property management companies (PMCs) in favor of greater control, flexibility, and profitability.The findings, which form part of an upcoming report by Hospitable , show that nearly 80% (79.7%) of hosts have no plans to hire a property management company within the next year. The majority of hosts point to the high costs of PMCs (82.2%) and the desire to maintain direct control over their guest experience and property operations (58.4%) as key reasons for their preference for independence.The report also uncovers a revealing statistic: more than one in eight hosts previously used a PMC but ultimately returned to self-management, indicating dissatisfaction with traditional property management approaches. Hosts emphasize that independence allows greater control over guest interactions and property maintenance (63.7%), higher profitability without costly management fees (54.7%), and the flexibility to quickly adapt pricing and policies to changing market conditions (48.8%).A major driver behind this shift? Technology. An overwhelming 96.8% of hosts say it’s critical to staying competitive — giving them the tools and confidence to manage everything from guest messaging to pricing without relying on a third party.This trend reflects a broader shift within the short-term rental market. Hosts are increasingly prioritizing genuine guest experiences and local market expertise – qualities they often find lacking among larger, more corporate-style PMCs. As a result, many hosts are either choosing complete independence or seeking support from smaller, locally-based property managers who offer personalized service and deep local knowledge.Pierre-Camille Hamana, CEO and Founder of Hospitable, said: “Our research reflects a growing confidence among independent hosts. They’re not choosing independence because they have to, they’re choosing it because they can. With the right technology, today’s hosts are able to manage operations, guest experience, pricing, and communications more efficiently than ever before, without sacrificing profitability or quality. That level of control is incredibly powerful.At the same time, we recognise that the short-term rental ecosystem is diverse. Property management companies still play an important role, especially for hosts who prefer a hands-off approach. But for many, self-management has become a viable, and often preferable, path. We also see a growing opportunity for local, independent managers who can deliver real value through personal care and market knowledge — something large PMCs often struggle to replicate.”Founded in 2016, Hospitable is a vacation rental software provider offering a suite of tools that empower hosts to automate the most time-consuming elements of hosting. Hosts use Hospitable to answer 90% of guest messages with AI-powered automated messaging, to automate their team notifications so they never miss a clean, and to avoid double bookings with a synchronized calendar across booking channels. - 4/13/2025
Donatos Pizza Adds Voice Ordering
Donatos Pizza has selected Revmo AI, a provider of voice AI for restaurants, as its preferred vendor for a new AI ordering system that will automate its phone orders. Rollout to all 174 Donatos restaurants is expected to be completed by May 2025.
The company anticipates that Revmo's voice ordering technology will enhance the guest experience and increase order conversions, ultimately driving revenue across its locations nationwide. Donatos Pizza, anticipating the sunsetting of DoorDash AI's automated ordering features at the end of April, selected Revmo AI following a rigorous vetting process. After comparing capabilities across other voice AI solutions for restaurants, including SoundHound and Kea, Donatos found Revmo's platform to best meet its requirements for improving customer experience and boosting conversion rates.
"We're always looking for innovative ways to better serve our customers and drive our business forward," explained Kevin King, CEO and President of Donatos Pizza. "Revmo's voice AI ordering system allows us to provide a more convenient and consistent experience for our guests. We expect this technology to not only delight our customers but also increase order conversions and revenue across our stores."
The voice AI initiative is a key component of Donatos' restaurant automation strategy, designed to offload routine tasks and enable associates to focus on hospitality. With support from the pizza purveyor's IT team, Revmo's AI ordering system is being fully integrated into Donatos' point-of-sale (POS) platform.
Revmo's voice ordering system stood out for several key differentiators. One highlight was Revmo's proprietary "INSANO Mode" voice engine, which delivers a remarkably human-like conversational experience. The platform also handles complex tasks, including secure credit card processing over the phone and automatic coupon recognition and application. These capabilities, combined with full POS integration, will allow Donatos to offer customers a fast, convenient ordering process via phone while minimizing errors and wait times.
To learn more about Revmo's voice AI ordering system, visit revmo.ai, or contact Revmo to schedule a demo.
- 4/13/2025
Fourth Unveils the Restaurant Operations Suite:
Fourth announced the launch of the Restaurant Operations Suite. Powered by Fourth iQ, the Restaurant Operations Suite brings together HotSchedules Workforce Management, Fourth HR & Payroll, and MacromatiX Inventory Management into one connected solution for multi-location restaurant owners, operators and managers.
The Restaurant Operations Suite is a single place for restaurant owners / operators, above-store and in-store managers to manage their back-of-house scheduling, labor compliance, HR, payroll, earned wage access, and inventory. Powered by AI, the suite empowers managers with real-time above store insights and recommendations for in store actions that drive profitability at each location.
Across the Fourth customer base, on average, customers are seeing a 3-5% increase in profit, 5% reduction in labor costs, and 20% reduction in cost of goods sold.
“Restaurant managers are at the center of everything—but they’re stretched thin, constantly shifting between a variety of manual tasks like scheduling, payroll, and making inventory decisions.” said Clinton Anderson, CEO at Fourth. “The Restaurant Operations Suite enables restaurant managers, area coaches and operations managers to spend less time on manual work and instead focus on leading their teams and delivering a better customer experience at each location.”
“Embracing the Fourth solution has become a strategically important initiative for our business as we look for new ways to increase operational efficiency to deliver great customer and family member experiences,” said Jerry Phillips, VP of Technology at Whataburger. “With Fourth, we have a partner with deep industry expertise and the right technology to help us embed AI across our back-office operations.”
The latest release delivers a wide range of new capabilities aimed at improving manager productivity and reducing operational complexity:
- Above Store Real-Time Dashboards offer instant visibility into operational KPIs across each location, allowing teams to drive in store actions and proactively address issues before they affect customer experience or profitability.
- Digital Tip Payouts automate tip distributions, reduce manual work and cash handling (saving up to 80% of a manager’s time with tip calculation and distribution), and improve employee satisfaction with fast, accurate payments.
- Forecast Manager provides a single view of forecasted demand at each location so you can improve coordination, planning and deployment of labor and inventory decisions.
- AI Demand Forecasting engine that enables managers to reduce labor inefficiencies, improve cost control, and increase margins by adjusting staffing and inventory levels based on real-time demand patterns (with customers seeing 20%+ increase in forecast accuracy).
“With over 25 years serving the restaurant industry, we’ve seen firsthand the pressure restaurant managers face every day. The Restaurant Operations Suite is our answer to that challenge—putting modern tools and AI-powered guidance directly in their hands,” said Christian Berthelsen, Chief Technology Officer at Fourth. “It’s not just about reducing admin work—it’s about unlocking better decisions, faster responses, and stronger performance across every location.”
To learn more, visit the Fourth website. Additionally, the Fourth team will be at the Restaurant Leadership Conference in Phoenix from April 14-16 (Booth 238). Clinton Anderson, CEO of Fourth, will also be leading a panel at the show with Brinker International and The Flynn Group on how restaurant owners/operators can improve profit by making managers more productive with AI and data.
- 4/13/2025
Presto Launches Phone Ordering Business Unit
Presto Phoenix, Inc., a provider of drive-thru vice AI for the quick-service restaurant (QSR) industry, announced the launch of its phone ordering business unit.
“Adding AI-native phone ordering is exciting as it will allow us to offer a broader spectrum of Voice AI solutions to our customers,” said Gee Lefevre, CEO of Presto. “Given our deep enterprise restaurant experience, our customers are asking us to be their one-stop shop for Voice AI. Phone ordering, while much simpler than drive-thru Voice AI, adds tangible value to them.”
Presto Phoenix, Inc. is the largest American drive-thru voice AI partner to the restaurant industry. Presto’s Voice AI products increase revenue, decrease labor costs, improve staff productivity, and standardize/enhance the guest experience.
In addition to its core drive-thru voice AI product, the company has, at various points, worked on or evaluated computer vision, kiosks, phone ordering, and robots - all purely in the restaurant vertical, explained Krishna K. Gupta, co-founder and Chairman of Presto.
“Every American industry will witness end-to-end, connected automation, and restaurants are no different,” added Gupta. “We want to build AI to SAY, SEE, and DO in a unified and magical manner to enable restaurant groups and their employees to take maximal advantage of the AI revolution. Voice AI is the first, critical key to unlocking this vision.”
- 4/13/2025
Tapcheck Raises $225 Million in Equity and Debt Funding
Tapcheck, an on-demand pay provider, has raised $225 million in combined equity and debt financing.“We're thrilled to have the continued support of PeakSpan Capital and the strategic backing of Victory Park Capital,” said Ron Gaver, co-founder and CEO of Tapcheck. “This infusion of capital will further strengthen our capacity to empower employees nationwide and alleviate financial pressure by granting access to earned wages ahead of traditional pay schedules.”
Founded in 2019 by entrepreneurial husband-and-wife team Ron and Kayling Gaver, Tapcheck emerged from the duo's vision to address the financial difficulties caused by traditional pay cycles. The company enables workers to access their earned wages seamlessly before payday, easing the paycheck-to-paycheck strain and in turn, improving employee morale, retention, and productivity.
300 Integrations
Tapcheck's on-demand pay platform seamlessly integrates with nearly 300 payroll and timekeeping systems, offering a smooth and precise experience for employers and employees alike. Provided at no cost to employers, Tapcheck allows employees to safely and responsibly access their earned wages, helping them avoid hidden fees and have greater financial flexibility. Employers using Tapcheck report over 50% improvement in employee retention, with 70% of employees noting that it reduces their financial stress.
In the past five years, Tapcheck has facilitated over $1 billion in early wage funding and served 12,000 employer locations. The company is committed to security, compliance, and transparency, ensuring payroll control remains intact for organizations. Tapcheck’s proprietary earned wage access engine provides exceptional accuracy in wage calculations, enhancing financial transparency and boosting employee engagement. With an ‘Excellent’ Trustpilot rating, Tapcheck is renowned as one of the most trusted earned wage access providers globally, supported by increasing usage rates and positive feedback from both employers and employees.
Tapcheck partners with companies like Hilton, Planet Fitness, Taco Bell, and Jiffy Lube and has achieved remarkable milestones, including significant user adoption in the quick-service restaurant (QSR) sector—serving 112,000 McDonald’s employees and enabling over $160M in advance wage disbursement—as well as hundreds of thousands of frontline caregivers working in skilled nursing, home health, and rehabilitation sectors.
This latest funding includes a $25 million Series A extension round led by existing investor, PeakSpan Capital, and a $200 million credit facility provided by Victory Park Capital.
“We are fired up to embark on this next chapter alongside Tapcheck,” said Jack Freeman, partner at PeakSpan Capital. “Over the last three years, we’ve witnessed Ron and Kayling assemble a world class team, build game changing products and amplify reach through growing by over 20x. They’ve done so while tripling down on user experience, payroll accuracy, integrations and onboarding – Tapcheck’s standout strengths, enabling the business to drive maximum value to the end user wage worker.”
The capital injection will support the continued development of Tapcheck’s newest product, designed to give millions of employees early access to their wages. It will also enhance the accessibility of Tapcheck’s Mastercard offering and accelerate the expansion of its AI capabilities. Through these advancements, Tapcheck aims to solidify its position as a leader in the next generation of earned wage access solutions.
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