E La Carte Releases More Powerful Version Of Customized Tablet For Restaurants

E la Carte, a company that develops a tableside tablet for the restaurant and related hospitality industries, is debuting a brand new version of its hardware for restaurants.

As we’ve written in the past, E la Carte launched Presto earlier this year to bring user-friendly tablets to restaurants to bring efficiency to the tableside and ordering experience. The 7-inch tablet includes a digital menu that lets you sift through the restaurant’s food and drink selection via photos and detailed descriptions using a touch-screen interface. There’s also a section for payments and games, including trivia and a drawing app.

The new tablet has been completely reformatted for restaurant use. For example, E la Carte made the battery life last much longer (20 hours) and the hardware has been ruggedized for heavy restaurant use and spills. The company also redesigned the credit card reader for a more seamless swipe experience, and the LED light changes color based on table status (similar to the way you’d press the call button for a flight attendant on an airplane).

As founder Rajat Suri explains, the new version of the tablet is designed to look and feel like part of a restaurant table, rather than a tablet to be carried around by consumers.

E la Carte, which has raised over $5 million from Lightbank, SV Angel, Dave McClure, Joshua Schachter, and others, is seeing monthly recurring revenues growing 46 percent month over month. Currently, the tablets are processing over $6 million in orders and payments.

Over 1,000 tablets have been deployed overall, but tens of thousands more will be deployed in signed deals. And Suri says that E la Carte is creating close to $1 million annually in new value for their installed restaurants.

Suri is betting that Presto represents the future of restaurants. It’s not just in the actual tablet hardware, but it’s also about using data to control what’s offered on the menu and being able to dynamically change menu options based on demand, inventory and more.

And we hear the company is getting further interest from investors, so it’s likely we’ll see another funding round announced soon. Stay tuned.