ShopKeep raises funds to fuel its point of sale battle with Square

Cloud-based point of sale company ShopKeep is in a fierce fintech battle to woo tech-hungry restaurants, and has closed a $65 million round of equity and debt financing to bulk up technology and broaden its geographic footprint.

Tribeca Venture Partners led the round, which included First Data and Salesforce Ventures as investors. ShopKeep wants to expand its client base of 25,000 independent retailers and restaurants and bolster its momentum. The company reports its recurring revenue has tripled in the past three years. "The small business community continues to show incredibly promising — and accelerating — growth potential,” ShopKeep CEO Michael DeSimone said in a press release.

The restaurant vertical has increasingly become a battleground for fintech companies processing payments and providing delivery services. In the second quarter of this year, Square reported, the food and drink vertical accounted for 25 percent of its earnings.

In 2017 ShopKeep acquired Chowbot, an online order-and-pay software tool for restaurants, to expand its presence and customer base in the restaurant industry. Earlier in 2018 arch rival Square launched Square for Restaurants, a point of sale system specifically tailored for food service business.

According to Crunchbase, a website that tracks investments in fintech startups, ShopKeep has raised more than $72 million in debt and equity investments over five funding rounds. Tribeca Ventures was an early investor in ShopKeep, participating in its Series A round for a $2.2 million investment, which was reported by Crunchbase as closing in 2012.

The latest Series E funding round saw Salesforce Ventures, which is Salesforce’s corporate investment group, join First Data and Tribeca Venture Partners as investors. The debt financing portion of the Series E round was provided by ORIX Growth Capital and Square 1 Bank, a division of Pacific Western Bank and no relation to terminal and Cash App provider Square.

“Small business owners are a vital part of the business community and ShopKeep provides a powerful cloud-based point of sale platform that serves as the de facto operating systems for its customers. ShopKeep’s software not only helps its customers run their day-to-day business but also can assist to optimize sales, profit, customer loyalty and operations,” Brian Hirsch, co-founder and managing partner of Tribeca Venture Partners, said in the press release.