sunday, Atlanta-based Restaurant Tech Startup, Launches Following $24 Million Seed Financing Round Led by Coatue

ATLANTA, April 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Every day, millions of hours are wasted waiting for the bill to be paid in a restaurant – squandering time and creating inefficiencies for customers, staff and restaurant owners alike. Designed by restaurateurs for restaurateurs, Atlanta-based sunday launches today, providing a new payment method for restaurant customers to pay in 10 seconds and on their own time.

Founded by Atlanta tech leader and previous COO of ManoMano, disruptor in the e-commerce space, 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.

"It's simple – we provide a much better experience for a lower cost. For the customer, it's fast, convenient and seamless and for the restaurant owner and his or her staff, it's easier and profitable," said Christine de Wendel, co-founder and chief executive officer of sunday in the U.S. "As a customer, it allows you to skip the waiting game, giving you the option to pay whenever you're ready. As a restaurant owner, it creates incredible operational efficiencies, while generally providing higher tips and faster turnover for your staff."

With a recently completed $24 million seed capital from Coatue, New Wave and numerous investors from the tech and hospitality world, the app launches today 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

With these results, the restaurant expertise from the Big Mamma Restaurants team and de Wendel's tremendous track record growing tech ventures, this new service is the cutting-edge technology restaurants need most as they recover from the pandemic – and a much simpler and less expensive solution to their current payment options.

"We are thrilled to have restaurant owners, hotel owners and funders on board who share our ambition to create an easier and cheaper way to pay restaurant bills around the world," said Victor Lugger, co-founder and chief executive officer of sunday.

"The sunday offering will use technology to make the dining experience more efficient and safer for the consumer and the restaurant staff," said Michael Gilroy of Coatue. "We are excited to be supporting this proven team of entrepreneurs as they scale their business around the world."

sunday has offices in Atlanta, London, Paris and Madrid. To learn more, visit www.sundayapp.com.

About sunday
sunday is a tech company that turns the painful 15 minutes it takes to pay at a restaurant into a quick, simple experience that takes less than 10 seconds – simply scan a QR code, pay and walk away. Sunday's long-term vision is to disrupt payment in the physical retail space.

About Coatue
Coatue is one of the largest technology investment platforms in the world with more than $35 billion in assets under management. Our dedicated team of engineers and data scientists work closely with investment professionals to add value to founders and executive teams in our portfolio. With venture, growth and public funds, we back entrepreneurs from around the globe and at every stage of growth. Some of our private investments have included Airtable, Ant Financial, Anaplan, ByteDance, Chime, Databricks, DoorDash, Instacart, Meituan, Snap, Snowflake and Spotify.

SOURCE sunday