Dive Brief:

• Restaurant management platform Restaurant365 has acquired business intelligence platform Compeat. The combined business will led by Restaurant365 CEO Tony Smith and will serve over 28,000 restaurants, according to a press release. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
• Both companies provide similar solutions aimed at simplifying day-to-day operations, including accounting, inventory, scheduling, payroll and HR management. The solutions can yield a reduction in food and labor costs of up to 5%, according to the release. 
• Adoption of new technologies was growing before COVID-19 as restaurants looked to streamline their operations and save on costs. This sparked consolidation among providers — in 2019, Paytronix acquired Open Dining, Lavu bought MenuDrive and Toast snapped up StratEx HR. The pandemic accelerated the use of digital solutions as business shifted to off-premise, stoking additional tech deals. 

Dive Insight:

Restaurant365's Compeat acquisition comes just two years after it closed on an $88 million investment — its third round of funding — which the company used to grow its footprint and services. Last summer, Restaurant365 added new tools to stimulate restaurant recovery, including a profitability report and dashboard and customized labor models.

"We have a lofty vision to transform how restaurants operate and this combination significantly expands our market share and resources," Smith said of the Compeat acquisition in a statement.

Restaurant hunger for technology that digitizes and automates back-of-house operations to better support diner demand for online ordering isn't going away, either. Consumer interest in digital restaurant experiences is predicted to hold steady outside of the pandemic environment, and 92% of restaurant customers who are fully vaccinated plan to continue ordering online at least as often as they do now, according to research from Paytronix and PYMNTS. 

Further, 78% of restaurant operators believe contactless payments are in high demand, according to a Panasonic survey, while 76% of operators will continue to offer contactless options this year, per Square research. Fifty-four percent of casual dining operators have adopted digital menus since the pandemic began, according to the National Restaurant Association, and 88% of restaurants are considering shifting to digital menus, Square finds. The addition of all of these digital tools to facilitate such shifts illustrates the need for a streamlined management system, which could sustain continued consolidation in the restaurant tech space.

In April, Par Technology acquired Punchh, while Squarespace bought reservation platform Tock. Toast also acquired extraChef last week, which offers back-office technology.