Led · Equity · Aug 2016

Nowait operates a mobile guest app that shows real-time wait times and lets users put their names on a restaurant waitlist remotely for venues that do not take reservations. The company serves a network of more than 4,000 casual-dining restaurants nationwide, including chains such as Chili’s and First Watch. Restaurants pay Nowait a monthly fee to use its service, which replaces pen-and-paper waitlist systems. Nowait notifies customers by text when their table is ready and supports two-way texting so customers can indicate delays. The company has raised a total of $23.5 million to date and took its first funding round in August 2012. Nowait plans to expand its restaurant and customer base through a new partnership and investment from Yelp and will integrate its services into the Yelp app in the coming months. NoWait offers a consumer-facing app that shows nearby restaurants, wait times and distances and lets diners join wait lists from their phones. For restaurant partners it provides a wait list and table-management application that alerts patrons via text as a replacement for buzzer systems. Restaurants can include brief marketing messages in those texts, and NoWait is working to introduce push notifications in the consumer app for a more seamless experience. The platform expanded nationwide in January and onboarded nearly 1,000 restaurants in recent months; today thousands of restaurants use NoWait, including chains like First Watch, On The Border and Buffalo Wild Wings, as well as independent venues such as Eataly and Pizzeria Vetri. NoWait has seated more than 50 million diners to date and is seating over 5 million diners per month (up from 3.1 million earlier in the year); some partners pay for a premium tier priced between $59 and $199 per month. The company is a team of under 30 employees and plans to add headcount and roll out customer-requested features such as enhanced reservations and guest data. NoWait offers an iOS-based waitlisting system that runs on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad and sends SMS notifications (including links to view position) to diners. The product digitizes traditional buzzer and pen-and-paper systems and adds analytics for restaurant owners. Staff reportedly prefer the app over pager systems, and the company emphasizes lower cost and easier use compared with pagers. NoWait says it has seated over 4 million diners across 45 U.S. states, Canada and Puerto Rico. Current customers include Texas Roadhouse, Red Robin and TGI Friday's. With the new funding the company plans to expand its customer lineup further.