Restaurant Tech Startup Raises $24 Million

Designed by restaurateurs for restaurateurs, Atlanta-based sunday launches, providing a new payment method for restaurant customers to pay in 10 seconds and on their own time.

Founded by Christine de Wendel alongside European restaurateurs Tigrane Seydoux and Victor Lugger of Big Mamma Group Restaurants, this new technology allows customers to pay their bill on their own time via a QR code that is placed on each table and attributed to separate groups. The new payment method limits the amount of time wasted, increases efficiencies, allows customers to easily split checks and eliminates physical touchpoints between restaurant staff and customers.

With a recently completed $24 million seed capital, the app launches and is working with more than 1,300 restaurants in Europe – everything from casual dining chains to Michelin star restaurants – including Bertrand Group's restaurants, Éric Frechon's establishments, PNY in Europe.

"sunday is a game changer for us," said Brendan Sodikoff, chief executive officer of Chicago-based Hogsalt. "Regardless of whether our establishment is fast casual or more refined, giving guests control of their valuable time means we turn tables faster and improve service. sunday keeps our guests moving and our employees focused on what matters most!"

The ultimate goal of sunday is to make brick-and-mortar restaurant experiences as simple, fast and convenient as ordering online – while allowing restaurant owners and their teams to concentrate on their core mission: cooking, serving with a smile and cherishing their customers. sunday is developing a solution that should disrupt payments in all physical locations from hospitality to retail.

"Working in the restaurant industry is amazing, but tough," said Harold Moore, chef at Harold's at the Arlo Soho, Charlie Palmer Collective. "sunday gives restaurants back precious minutes, bringing in more tips and removing major sticking points in dealing with payments from guests."

To reduce the risk of contamination amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Seydoux, Lugger and their well-known European restaurant group Big Mamma launched the solution in 14 European restaurants last year. After a year of using the solution in Big Mamma Restaurants, the team saw remarkable findings that demonstrate the need to deploy it on a wider scale, including:  

- 80% of Big Mamma customers chose to pay via QR code
- Customers and staff saved 15 minutes per table
- Servers received 40% more in tips
- 50% of bills were easily shared by diners within seconds
- There was 12% more table turnover, creating significant operational efficiencies

sunday has offices in Atlanta, London, Paris and Madrid.