After years of speculation and prospective sales opportunities, Just Eat Takeaway is finally selling Grubhub. While the buyer — Marc Lore’s New York City-based hotshot startup, Wonder — may come as a bit of a surprise, as many were hoping DoorDash would scoop up Grubhub like Uber did to Postmates, the acquisition is a fit for multiple reasons.
Under Wonder’s ownership, Grubhub can re-focus on New York City and other surrounding markets. The acquisition also provides a much-needed shakeup to the delivery industry, which had been predictably dominated by just a couple of players in recent years.
In other news this month, Access Group acquired Paytronix — another high-profile acquisition in a long line of M&A activity. Plus, Punchh becomes the latest tech vendor to launch a digital wallet, and NRN interviewed a generative AI startup that wants to change the way servers are trained and provide customer service.
Tech Tracker rounds up what’s happening in the technology sector of the restaurant industry, including news from restaurants, vendors, digital platforms, and third-party delivery companies. Here’s a breakdown of what you need to know and why:
Wonder to purchase Grubhub in Q1 2025
As previously reported, virtual food hall company Wonder is slated to acquire Grubhub in Q1 of 2025. This could signal a monumental shift for the restaurant delivery industry. Grubhub has long been the less popular third-place, third-party delivery company.
According to recent data from mystery shopper company Intouch Insight, Grubhub lags behind the much larger Uber Eats and DoorDash companies (the latter of which owns more than two-thirds of the delivery space), in terms of speed of service and customer satisfaction.
As Branded Hospitality cofounder Michael Schatzberg noted in a previous interview, while once upon a time, “Grubhub owned the New York City market when they were Seamless,” these days, Grubhub lacks the resources to compete nationally. Since Uber splits its focus between ride-sharing and food delivery, DoorDash has become synonymous with delivery instead.
Under Wonder ownership, however, this competitive landscape could change. Over the past couple of years, Wonder has become a local wunderkind, attracting the attention of investors and raising nearly $1 billion over the past few years. On top of that, the company announced another $250 million in capital from new investors.
Billing itself as a virtual food hall with brick-and-mortar roots, Wonder is not really in the same category as other third-party delivery companies. But the Grubhub acquisition could shift that operational dynamic. Like Grubhub, Wonder has New York City roots, but the company has also attracted national attention, not just from investors, but also for its 2023 acquisition of the Blue Apron meal kit company.
With the backing of Wonder’s financial resources, Grubhub stands to become more of a competitor to Uber Eats and DoorDash, both of whom have confidently outperformed Grubhub in recent years. This potential delivery segment shakeup can only be good news, as more competition would enliven an industry that has become fairly predictable.
The Access Group to acquire Paytronix
Earlier this month, European software company The Access Group, announced that it had entered an agreement to buy U.S.-based guest engagement platform Paytronix. Access Group currently focuses on business management software, and with the acquisition of Paytronix, would add digital guest engagement to its arsenal.
Paytronix would remain a separate brand but would integrate its platform with a selection of Access products.
“Since our founding, we’ve worked to help clients build one-to-one interactions, enhance customer engagement and streamline operations for their businesses,” Paytronix CEO Jeff Hindman, said in a statement. “Billions of transactions and millions of data-driven guest profiles later we realize our vision every time an AI-enhanced campaign is sent, which is nearly once every minute. Joining a global force such as Access will further broaden the software solutions available to our current and future client base, enhancing the value we can offer and helping to solve everyday business challenges.”
Brown Bacon AI launches generative AI tool for servers
Brown Bacon AI is a hospitality-focused generative AI startup that uses its own proprietary technology to offer an AI chatbot to help servers who are being trained, or those who are stumped by customer queries.
The husband-and-wife-owned company just launched this month, with the goal of helping casual- and fine-dining restaurants provide better customer service by equipping servers with its proprietary AI chatbot, SomAI. The technology is named that because one of the many things it can do is provide wine pairing recommendations based on a restaurant’s specific menu, as well as customer preferences.
Brown Bacon AI offers a customer-side solution, as well as a front-of-house and back-of-house solution. It doesn’t require downloading any app or software: a QR code will just prompt customers to enter their email address and be directed to a website where they can interact with a restaurant’s personalized AI chatbot. Customers have options then to see a personalized menu based on their dietary needs or allergies. On the server side, it can also offer recommendations for a full-course meal, along with drink pairings.
“Let’s say you normally would drink a Manhattan but want to try something new to drink—you can ask it to give you recommendations, or say you have $150 to spend, you can ask for a customized order of an appetizer, entrée, drink, and dessert,” Aimee Arnold, cofounder of Brown Bacon AI said. “Then, if you say you don’t like fish, the recommendations will change based on your input. It’s also multilingual, so you can have someone speaking typing a different language into their phone, and it will give them the answers back in that language.”
One of Brown Bacon AI’s first restaurant partners is Cibo Vino in Omaha, Neb., which is currently using it as a back-of-house tool, and to address food allergies and dietary needs in the front of the house.
Punchh loyalty software launches digital wallet
Digital wallets are becoming a notable trend in the food tech world, and Par Technology’s Punchh just joined the fray with the recent launch of the vendor’s Punchh Wallet feature.
Some of the features of Punchh Wallet include seamless payment integration with loyalty and subscription programs, a partnership with Apple Wallet, the use of saved payments and digital passes, and digital stored value (eliminating the need for gift cards).
“Unlike many other digital wallet solutions, Punchh Wallet is adaptable, allowing restaurants to pick and choose the exact features they need—whether that’s in-app options or out-of-app wallet capabilities—without paying for what they won’t use,” Savneet Singh, CEO and president of PAR Technology, said. “Plus, by operating within PAR’s unified technology ecosystem, Punchh Wallet removes the usual headaches of dealing with multiple vendors.”
Picnic raises $5 million to expand pizza robotics
Remember when pizza robots were the next big thing? Picnic is still experiencing success with its food automation technologies, even if the zeitgeist has moved on. The automation technology company, best known for its Pizza Picnic Station, just announced the latest round of $5 million in fundraising, led by Cercano Management, which will primarily be used to scale operations and enhance delivery capabilities.
“At this time, Picnic is very focused on pizza automation because of the incredible demand we’re seeing across North America in high-volume environments like universities, big box retailers, stadiums, pizzerias, and military bases,” Picnic CEO Michael Bridges said in a statement. “The funding we recently secured will allow us to scale production and reach even more customers in these sectors, making our pizza solutions as accessible as possible.”
