Storific, the French startup that lets customers place orders in restaurants, bars and hotels via an iPhone, has raised $200k in a seed round financed by Kima Ventures.
The company offers a paid-for subscription service via a browser-based interface where businesses can provide full menus, list their tables and receive notifications from customers ordering by an iPhone. Whilst the consumer-facing iPhone app is, of course, free.
The overall idea behind Storific is to make ordering in restaurants as frictionless as possible, reducing costs but also letting front of house staff concentrate more on customer service rather than purely ratcheting up orders. Additionally, follow on orders, such as that second or third coffee or a desert, become more impulsive and therefore revenue increases. That’s the pitch, anyway.
To that end, since its private beta launch last December, Storific has been piloting the service with 35 businesses in the US, UK, Belgium, Canada, Italy, Greece and Japan. Furthermore, the company plans to issue 100 free premium invitations to its service for restaurants, bars, clubs and hotels through March 31st. If you’re a business who wants to get in on the iPhone action, you can apply for a free premium invitation here.
Storific is founded by Michael Cohen, ex-business developer Europe for netvibes.com and Andrés Mejia. Kima Ventures has previously invested in startups such as Paper.li, Rapportive and Sparrow.