Dash, the mobile payments service for bars and restaurants, has today secured a $1.2 million seed-2 round from Mike Germano, CEO of Carrot Creative, as well as existing investors like New York Angels, Caerus Ventures, and founder and CEO of the One Group, Jonathan Segal. Along with the funding, Dash is also announcing a revamped iOS 7 app which will offer a few extra features for forward-thinking restaurant-goers.
The update will integrate location-aware bluetooth to automatically check in users as they walk into a restaurant or bar. Plus, the iOS 7 version of the app offers users and bars a credit system, letting users pay from a credit tab and bar owners offer credit based around patronage and other factors.
The system works by integrating with existing POS systems, and allows groups of people to split up their tab with an itemized bill, unlike competitor Cover. This is valuable at a restaurant where waiting for the bill can be annoying, and even more important at crowded bars where placing orders and paying for them can take up much of the night.
“Driving adoption of mobile payments inside of restaurants and bars requires a behavior change for both merchants and consumers,” said cofounder Jeff McGregor. “There’s a delicate balance between growing both sides of the market and driving overall adoption. Dash is focusing on partnering with restaurants and bars that have strong consumer influence to help drive transactions through mobile.”
The company launched back in November with a $700k seed round, bringing the total funding to $1.9 million.
For now, Dash is only available in select restaurants in New York City, including Agave, Los Feliz, Edward’s, Tammany Hall, Opal, Village Lantern, The Royal, Dukes, Big Daddys, City Crab, Barn Joo, Clinton St Baking Co, Barramundi, and more.
The funding will be used to get more merchants on the platform, and expand the core executive team. Recently, Henry Lihn from Single Platform and Thomas McNulty from ZocDoc have joined the team. For now, focus remains on NYC but expansion into new markets is planned for before the next raise.
Dash is available now in the iTunes store.
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