Restaurant tech startup Formitable has got a new investment partner – serial entrepreneur Adriaan Mol. Providing €8 million of growth capital, Adriaan is now an investor and strategic partner in the Dutch startup as it ramps up development and expansion plans.
Restaurants have slowly but surely been digitalising. From restaurants expanding their online ordering presence, using QR codes to see menus and order food, to digital software enhancing kitchen management and operations – tech has been transferring both the front-of-house and back-of-house processes of the restaurant and wider hospitality industry.
Since 2017, Formitable has been pioneering the digitalisation of this sector with its reservation, ticketing and loyalty solutions. Today, they have announced a new partnership as Adriaan Mol acquires interest in the company.
Adriaan Mol, the serial entrepreneur behind Mollie and Messagebird, has just acquired interest in Formitable. He’s doing so through his new investment vehicle Spacetime.
In the deal, Adriaan is putting up €8 million of growth capital into the Amsterdam-based company. It marks an expansion of an already fruitful partnership between Mol and Formitable and will help the hospitality innovators focus on further product development and international expansion.
Raymond Wilders, CEO of Formitable: “With this investment, we strengthen our position as market leader in the Netherlands in the field of growth solutions for restaurants. Partnering with Adriaan allows us to continually improve our products, contributing to a better guest experience, increased revenue and sustainable growth for restaurants. In doing so, it is our ambition to also become the market leader in Scandinavia and Germany, followed by rest of Europe.”
Formitable offers an innovative growth platform for restaurants, helping them to improve the guest experience and grow through loyalty and reservation solutions. The hospitality sector has been undergoing a change – and Formitable has been there along the way to support owners and managers through it.
Expectations from consumers are transitioning. Guests now expect to be able to interact with restaurants over various touch points, be able to do so 24/7, and have a digital experience. Restaurants need to be able to provide a hyper-personalized and flexible experience to meet new demands. At the same time, restaurants have to find ways to become more economically efficient. One big blow to any kitchen are no-shows and cancelled reservations. Formitable aims to address these challenges.
The Amsterdam-based startup offers an all-in-one software that helps restaurants with ‘selling’ (i.e getting tables booked, takeaway orders organized, payments, gift vouchers and so forth), managing the operations of the restaurant (and any of the challenges like no-shows and reviews that may arise), and, with launching growth and marketing campaigns.
Formitable and Mol have been working together for some time already, sharing the dream to digitize restaurants for the better. For example, about 5 years ago they introduced a system of prepaying, to solve the issue of no-shows.
Adriaan Mol explained: “Before Formitable was founded, systems for reservations, ticketing and loyalty were often confusing and old-fashioned. Traditional software doesn’t offer restaurants the simplicity and service they deserve. Formitable has disrupted the market by offering restaurants good-looking, next-generation tools which allow them to focus on their guests and grow their business. Raymond and I share a belief in innovation, simplicity and technology that works. I look forward to continuing to innovate together, and to create products and services which help restaurants move forward and optimize guests’ experience at the same time.”
Within their new partnership, Formitable and Mol plan, among other things, to create a system for restaurants and their guests, in which after reservation and restaurant visit, payment takes place without interruption.
Since its launch in 2017, Formitable has on-boarded more than 3000 restaurants in 15 countries across Europe. The scaleup is now regarded as the market leader in the Netherlands and has impressive growth in key markets of Germany, Sweden and Denmark. In 2021, the team launched the app Table, and has already gained over 60k users becoming the leading restaurant app in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Wilders added: ”Nobody likes asking for the bill, waiting a long time for it and then eventually pay. Restaurant staff also regularly experiences problems with cash, non-functioning debit cards, wonky card machines or faltering smart devices. The payment process simply takes too long and doesn’t contribute to a joyful, hospitable restaurant experience. With this new technology, guests soon can, to put it bluntly, go for a meal without money. With our Table app, guests will not only be able to discover and book restaurants easily, but also pay for their meal afterwards.”
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