Toast raises $250 million to improve restaurant payments, management

Restaurant point of sale and back-office management provider Toast raised $250 million in a Series E funding round, valuing the company at $2.7 billion, and is adding David Yuan from TCV to its board of directors.

Toast reports that the funding raised in the latest investment round will be used to help restaurants attract guests, recruit workers and improve operations.

The Series E funding was led by TCV and Tiger Capital Management with additional investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Leading Edge Capital and T. Rowe Price. According to its press release Toast revenue increased by 148% in 2018 as the company doubled the number of restaurants on its platform. New restaurants added last year include Tartine Bakery, Eggs Up Grill, JACKS Urban Eats and The County Line.

“Last year we celebrated the five year anniversary of our first Toast customer, Barismo. Now with tens of thousands of restaurants powered by Toast — and nearly 1,500 employees serving our community — it’s impressive to see how far we’ve come,” stated Chris Comparato, CEO of Toast in the press release. “At our core, we believe every restaurant should benefit from the massive investment we continue to make in restaurant technology.”

Boston-based Toast raised $115 million in a Series D funding round just last July, led by T. Rowe Price, valuing Toast at $1.3 billion. Bessemer Venture Partners led a Series B funding round in 2016. Bessemer is most notable for investments in fintechs such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Clarity Money, British peer-to-peer lender Zopa and installment lender Bread Finance.

According to Crunchbase, a website that tracks private investment in fintech startups, Toast has raised $499 million over 6 different funding rounds starting with a Series A in 2015.

“At TCV, we invest in companies that have the potential to reshape entire industries," said David Yuan, general partner at TCV in the press release. "Our investment will enable Toast to extend their platform beyond point-of-sale and guest-facing technology, and in doing so, create a powerful SaaS platform with a superlative business model.”