Restaurant Business Online: Craveworthy Brands invests in digital menu board developer Vistify
By: Lisa Jennings
The investment in partnership with Branded Hospitality Ventures is the first step in a plan to build a tech stack that will serve the nearly 20 franchise brands within the portfolio.
Craveworthy Brands is high on digital menu boards, so much so that the multi-brand operator invested in the tech company that makes them.
Craveworthy, a platform that includes nearly 20 restaurant brands, on Friday announced it has made a Series A investment in the Los Angeles-based tech firm Vistify Inc., the creator of the vMenu system. The technology allows brands to update digital menus in real time, automate promotions based on daypart or season, and generally ensure consistency across screens.
After testing the tech, Craveworthy is planning to roll out the vMenu system across its portfolio, which includes chains like BD’s Mongolian Grill, Big Chicken, Taim Mediterranean Kitchen and more. Currently the portfolio has about 280 brick-and-mortar locations that are company-owned and franchised.
Last year, Branded launched a $50 million fund to target emerging technology companies in the foodservice space.
The terms of the Vistify investment were not specified.
Gregg Majewski, Craveworthy’s founder and CEO, said it’s the first step in his plan to build a tech stack that will benefit all Craveworthy brands.
“What we always said about Craveworthy was that we wanted to be a platform company, and that included technology,” he said.
Long a fan of digital menu boards, Majewski said the technology used to be too expensive to justify, but now it’s much more affordable. “It makes no sense to do anything else,” he said.
The vMenu system will be rolled out first to the Dirty Dough brand within the next six months or so, he said, and then brand by brand, though new units will get the system, and franchisees can buy in when they want.
Majewski, meanwhile, said Craveworthy will continue to look for tech investments to build on the system.