Curate Raises New Round to Fix a Core Loyalty Problem: Customers Don't Want to Download Another App

Curate is building white-labeled no-download Apple App Clips that make restaurant loyalty and ordering as easy as a website - and as sticky as an app.

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Curate Technologies, a hospitality platform that powers instant, white-labeled mobile ordering and loyalty experiences, has raised $10 million in a new round of funding led by Kirk Brown, co-founder of ZoomInfo, with institutional support from K5 Global, a venture capital firm co-founded by Michael Kives and Bryan Baum, and participation from individual investors including NFL wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and Carl Cheng, founder of Pieology.

Curate is built around a fundamental challenge facing restaurants today: operators understand the value of direct, commission-free delivery and loyalty-driven repeat business, yet guest adoption of branded restaurant apps remains low. In Curate's analysis, less than 5% of all restaurant delivery orders are commission-free, with the remaining orders flowing through third-party marketplaces that can charge up to 30% in commissions and fees. Even when a direct option exists, guests often default to marketplace apps, despite higher costs for restaurants and customers. The result is that restaurants give up margin and lose direct ownership of customer data.

Curate solves this with Apple App Clips, so guests can open a branded ordering and rewards app experience instantly from any link, QR code, or tap - with no download required. Instead of sending guests to the App Store or a generic website, Curate meets them where they are and drops them straight into their app experience - where they can order and enroll in loyalty in seconds. As adoption grows, Curate's AI uses real purchase behavior to drive retention over time - recommending who to target, what to offer, and when to send it. Within six months of launch, Curate customers have seen commission-free delivery orders increase ~3x on average.

"Restaurants do not have an ordering problem, they have an adoption problem," said Grant Russell, CEO and Co-Founder of Curate. "App Clips remove the restaurant industry's biggest point of friction: the 'app download'. They help restaurants convert significantly more guests into loyalty members. Our AI marketing then works to turn these loyalty members into regulars, driving repeat business. This round of funding will help us scale Curate across more multi-location brands and keep investing in loyalty, commission-free direct ordering, and our AI-powered marketing engine."

"If Curate's technology existed when I was at The Cheesecake Factory, it would have fundamentally changed how we engaged guests and operated at scale," said Howard Gordon, Chief Business Officer of Curate and former Cheesecake Factory executive. "Today's operators are exhausted by expensive, disconnected tools that don't deliver results. Curate replaces that complexity with a single, easy-to-use platform that drives engagement, loyalty, and profitability."

What Curate Delivers

• The benefits of a native app (more return orders, higher conversions, push notifications) with the ease of a website: App Clips for instant access, plus full native iPhone and Android apps for deeper ongoing engagement
• Commission-free direct ordering for delivery on your own channels, helping avoid marketplace delivery commissions that can reach up to ~30% of the order subtotal
• Owned first-party customer data and loyalty programs (points, tiers, targeted offers, and surprise-and-delight promotions)
• An AI-powered marketing engine that uses purchase behavior to automate and optimize campaigns across SMS, email, and push, plus upsell workflows - improving over time based on what converts
• Built for multi-location brands with centralized controls and unified performance analytics

Over the past year, Curate has expanded its footprint significantly, partnering with a growing roster of restaurant brands across fast casual, QSR, and multi-unit concepts. As operators face rising third-party fees, fragmented technology stacks, and increasing pressure to own their customer relationships, Curate has emerged as a trusted solution for brands seeking clarity, control, and consistent results.

"In our first three months with Curate, we hit the #74 most popular app on the App Store (Food & Drink) with just four locations, and it showed up in the numbers. Revenue grew 30% year over year, and our loyalty members now average over 7.4 visits per year," said Anne Nguyen, Co-founder of Da Vien Coffee.

"Curate's loyalty was a huge win for us. After switching from Toast Online Ordering to Curate, our direct online sales increased 44.3% across takeout and delivery," said Jimmy Lee, Co-founder of Mama Hieu's. "It's the first time our direct ordering channel has felt like a real habit for customers."

Leadership
Curate is helmed by a seasoned leadership team that combines deep Silicon Valley AI expertise with hands-on hospitality experience, and success scaling complex, multi-unit restaurant operations:

• Grant Russell, CEO & Co-Founder — Stanford University, Computer Science (AI focus); former engineer at Google X.
• Alex Wang, CTO & Co-Founder — former Meta AI engineer with a background in artificial intelligence research at Stanford University.
• Howard Gordon, Chief Business Officer — former executive at The Cheesecake Factory, where he helped lead the brand's growth from five locations into a nationally recognized restaurant company with hundreds of locations.

About Curate Technologies
Curate Technologies helps restaurant brands grow direct orders and loyalty with white-labeled mobile experiences powered by Apple App Clips - so guests can open a full app experience for ordering and rewards in seconds from a link, QR code, or tap, with no download required. Curate combines ordering, loyalty, guest analytics, and an AI-powered marketing engine across SMS, email, and push to help restaurants capture more guests into loyalty, drive repeat visits, and own the customer relationship. By shifting demand to first-party channels, Curate helps reduce reliance on third-party marketplaces and the delivery commissions that can reach 20-30%. Curate is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. Learn more or request a demo at www.getcurate.com.

Media Contact
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Gabriella Conte | [email protected] | 4258708584

SOURCE Curate Technologies