• Storific raises $200k from Kima Ventures to let customers order in restaurants via iPhone

    Thursday, February 24th, 2011

    Steve O’Hear is probably best known as a technology journalist, most recently at TechCrunch. He still occasionally blogs at last100. Until February 2012, he was CEO of expertise platform Beepl where he helped the company navigate its first VC round, along with seeing the product through development, private alpha and a high-profile public launch. Last100 was co-founded with Richard MacManus... → Learn More

    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.

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    • http://twitter.com/eamonncarey eamonncarey

      Nice idea. I’ve seen a few restaurants where the waiters have iPads to take orders. Also, this place in London – http://www.inamo-restaurant.com/ – has an interactive tabletop that allows you to order without a waiter being involved.

      I also remember going to a restaurant with a friend of mine. We were ordering our food and the waiter was tapping away on his iPhone as we ordered. My mate asked him if they’d built some sort of app that allowed him to send the order directly to his kitchen. The waiter looked at us as though we had ten heads and said – “I’m just texting the order to the chef”….

    • http://sisyph.us/ ErikSchwartz

      The hard part of this is not the iPhone app. The hard part is integration with legacy systems.

    • http://topsy.com/eu.techcrunch.com/2011/02/24/storific-raises-200k-from-kima-ventures-to-let-customers-order-in-restaurants-via-iphone/?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L2 Tweets that mention Storific raises $200k from Kima Ventures to let customers order in restaurants via iPhone — Topsy.com

      [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by TechCrunch, Bastien Labelle, goodmachine, Philippe Pelissier, Captico and others. Captico said: French startup @storific lets customers place orders in restaurants, bars and hotels via an iPhone http://ow.ly/42GjZ (Raises $200k) [...]

    • http://twitter.com/RicKats Rick Kats

      This is a tough one, might be a hit might not. I personally wouldn’t use it, I prefer the traditional waiter :) .

    • Pete Austin

      Re: “The company offers a paid-for subscription service via a browser-based interface”

      “The new rule, from the App Store Review Guidelines (developer account required):

      11.2 Apps utilizing a system other than the In App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an app will be rejected

      In practice, this means that any app that requires content or subscription purchases, or uses a service that does, now must either implement IAP under Apple’s terms and take a 30% cut,1 or get kicked out of the App Store.”
      http://www.marco.org/3437484678

      Oops!

    • Pete Austin

      Re: “The company offers a paid-for subscription service via a browser-based interface”

      “The new rule, from the App Store Review Guidelines (developer account required):

      11.2 Apps utilizing a system other than the In App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an app will be rejected

      In practice, this means that any app that requires content or subscription purchases, or uses a service that does, now must either implement IAP under Apple’s terms and take a 30% cut,1 or get kicked out of the App Store.”
      http://www.marco.org/3437484678

      Oops!

    • http://twitter.com/eamonncarey eamonncarey

      I wonder if this is covered by the exemption for SaaS – it’s not really a publishing service…

    • Burnthome

      Good idea… but how its going to integrated with legacy ordering system that exist on current POS system? As we know, there are alot of POS system available in the market and its will be hard for restauranteur. That’s a scenario, what if a customer decided to cancel the food and how fast its can be receive on another hand?

      Thank you.
      Darrell
      http://www.tworight.com (coming soon) / http://www.dineserver.com (coming soon)

    • http://twitter.com/sohear Steve O’Hear

      I think you misunderstand the way it works. The “shopping” app on iPhone is free. The back end “store” part is a paid service. The goods being sold aren’t digital either, so it doesn’t fall into Apple’s subscription model at all.

    • Scott Johnson

      I think it is only fair for Apple to receive 30% of the value of the food ordered through the iPhone.

    • http://twitter.com/danscholz Daniel Scholz

      There’s been a bunch of speculation over whether or not Apple will apply this to SaaS vendors. As of now there’s no written exemption.

    • http://twitter.com/sohear Steve O’Hear

      It’s not SaaS at the consumer end, it’s food!

    • Dgbweb

      FaaS

    • Dgbweb

      FaaS

    • Anonymous
    • http://www.airsidemobile.com Hans Miller

      Hi Erik. We’ve solved this. http://www.airsidemobile.com.

    • Anonymous

      loveshopping.us

    • Anonymous

      Internet purchase never lack revolution and creativity. Maybe Groupon will become the old day soon though it is easy to Groupon Clone website Http://www.joomabc.com . People can make order on iphone. But the prerequisite is customers need to have a Iphone. I am not sure how is the mobile phone market share of iphone in Europe.

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    • http://fr.techcrunch.com/2011/02/25/ne-patientez-plus-au-restaurant-grace-a-votre-mobile/ Ne patientez plus au restaurant grâce à votre mobile

      [...] a annoncé une levée de fonds de 200K€ auprès de Kima Ventures. Cette application  permet de passer une commande depuis votre [...]

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    • Strugglingcafeowner

      this will not catch on. horrible business model.

      DEADPOOL

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      I also remember going to a restaurant with a friend of mine. We were ordering our food and the waiter was tapping away on his iPhone as we ordered.

    • http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/04/04/social-transportation-platform-tickengo-scores-seed-money-from-kima-ventures/ Social transportation platform Tickengo scores seed money from Kima Ventures

      [...] initiative, the fund now only accepts applications in English. In addition to Tickengo, Kima also recently invested in the iPhone app-turned-restaurant-server Storific. CrunchBase Information Tickengo [...]

    • http://jetlib.com/news/2011/04/04/tickengo-closes-seed-round-with-kima-ventures-so-you-can-charge-hitchhikers/ Tickengo Closes Seed Round With Kima Ventures So You Can Charge Hitchhikers | JetLib News

      [...] the fund now only accepts applications in English. In addition to Tickengo, Kima also recently invested in the iPhone app-turned-restaurant-server [...]

    • http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/04/14/kima-ventures-invests-in-astrolome-to-bring-you-real-time-personalized-horoscopes/ Kima Ventures invests in Astrolome to bring you real-time personalized horoscopes

      [...] of an unusual investment on behalf of Kima, who has previously invested in companies like Paper.li, Storific and more recently, Tickengo. Nonetheless, Kima co-founder Jérémie Berrebi is thrilled and [...]

    • http://jetlib.com/news/2011/04/14/kima-ventures-invests-in-astrolome%e2%80%99s-real-time-horoscope-platform/ Kima Ventures Invests In Astrolome’s Real-Time Horoscope Platform | JetLib News

      [...] of an unusual investment on behalf of Kima, who has previously invested in companies like Paper.li, Storific and more recently, Tickengo. Nonetheless, Kima co-founder Jérémie Berrebi is thrilled [...]

    • Admin

      I don’t have an iphone for the moment
      http://www.globalwii.com

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    • http://dramalioti-taylor.org/2011/07/14/it-happened-in-h1-2011-musings-on-the-mobile-internet-seed-and-series-a-investments/ It happened in H1.2011: musings on the mobile & internet seed and series A investments « Open Source Angel Investing

      [...] Paris-based mobile developer Storific got $150k  seed money from Kima Ventures to develop a mobile platform that lets customers place orders in restaurants, bars and hotels. I saw a couple like this lately, one from a team of MBAs. I did not think it was worth taking it [...]

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