Restaurant Tech Innovator, ResQ, Announces $9 Million in Funding

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Jun 22, 2021, 10:00 ET

Company grows by 750% during the pandemic while helping 3,000+ restaurants with revenue recovery through ResQ's platform

TORONTO, June 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - ResQ, the restaurant repair and maintenance marketplace platform, today announced a $7.5M (USD) in seed funding from top-tier investors bringing the total capital raised to $9M. This investment is being used to propel growth and help the fast-growing restaurant tech disruptor optimize back-of-house operations for restaurants with a focus on driving down operational costs.

ResQ, the restaurant repair and maintenance marketplace platform (CNW Group/ResQ)

"The restaurant technology landscape has seen tremendous growth, however, most of the innovation and investment has focused on front-of-house technology, such as delivery, order ahead, and point of sale," said Kuljeev Singh, Founder and CEO of ResQ. "As a former restaurant operator, I've experienced first hand the high cost of back-of-house operations. To successfully emerge from the pandemic, restaurants need to consider how to turn back-of-house operations into a revenue recovery opportunity and bring technology and innovation to their whole business."

The fight isn't over yet for restaurants. With restaurants focused on cost savings and hiring, picking the right back-of-house technology platform can carry big savings. On average, restaurants spend 3-5% of annual sales on repairs and maintenance. Through its SaaS-enabled marketplace, ResQ has saved 10-30% in annual repairs and maintenance spend for restaurants on its platform through a combination of: competitive marketplace rates on services, over 70% increase in productivity through process and communication improvements at scale."

"Repairs and maintenance is very resource-intensive which impacts top and bottom lines if not managed effectively. ResQ has been a powerful platform for us to offload our headaches and handle our repairs and maintenance, so our team can be focused on scaling our operations and growing the business. ResQ has saved us a significant amount in operational costs and time savings." says Shehzad Janmohamed, CEO of Soul Foods Group (one of the leading global franchise groups of Yum! Brands).

As a marketplace platform, ResQ offers service contractors revenue growth opportunities through ResQ's large restaurant customer base.

"By bringing on trusted service contractors, we're able to grow their business and help contractors thrive during the pandemic as well." says Kuljeev Singh. "Technology and services have been overlooked for commercial contractors limiting the scale and reach that service contractors deserve. Investing in elevating service contractor experiences will in turn lead to superior quality of work and better experiences for restaurants."

To fuel growth and innovation, ResQ raised a total of $9 million in funding led by Homebrew, Golden Ventures, and Inovia Capital. In addition, ResQ also has the support of industry veterans as investors and advisors including Nilam Ganenthiran, President at Instacart; Gokul Rajaram (Doordash, Board of Pinterest and Coinbase); Lenny Rachitsky (Airbnb); Jeff Adamson and Andrew Chau, Co-Founders of SkipTheDishes; Maple Ventures; and Polar Venture Partners. The round also saw investments from ResQ's restaurant customers, including Soul Foods (global franchisee of Yum! Brands) due to their belief in the product and team.

"To help large, underserved markets benefit from modern technology, you need a team which understands their customers and cares fundamentally about the problem they are solving. From the earliest days, ResQ was this type of startup - looking to support restaurants in their growth and in their day-to-day operations. The company's impressive growth through extraordinary times (the pandemic, restaurants shutting down, and more) is testament to their commitment to empowering restaurants to focus on their business and guests first and foremost." says Hunter Walk, Partner at Homebrew Ventures.

Over the last 12 months, ResQ has experienced 750% growth in revenue, tripled the size of its team, and launched in eight new markets across the US and Canada. ResQ recently launched in San Francisco following the success and traction the company built in LA, Dallas, Chicago, and Phoenix, amongst other US and Canadian markets. In response to the pandemic, ResQ launched a community support initiative called ResQ Helps, purchased more than 10,000 meals from local restaurants and hired out-of-work restaurant staff and service contractors to deliver free meals to frontline workers.

"ResQ has struck a chord with restaurants by working diligently to support its customers throughout the pandemic. Now the company's coast to coast expansion across North America speaks to how urgent the challenge is for restaurants to reach operational efficiency at scale given the massive pent up demand that we're seeing across the industry." says Karam Nijjar, Partner at Inovia Capital.

"ResQ is redefining the standards of repairs and maintenance for restaurants and service providers. ResQ has a unique advantage by offering a SaaS platform, and marketplace, helping them win and retain some of the most powerful restaurant brands and groups as customers." Ameet Shah, Partner at Golden Ventures.

About ResQ

ResQ is the end-to-end repair and maintenance platform for restaurants. We empower restaurants with easy-to-use software to request, manage and pay for repair and maintenance services all in one place while providing data and insights to empower better decision making.

ResQ is trusted by over 3,000 leading global restaurant groups in quick-service and full-service sectors including KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Wendy's, Arby's, The Keg, Cactus Club Cafe, CRAFT, Paramount, Franworks, Fresh and Tim Hortons.