PS27 Ventures completed its second round of investment in Jacksonville-based restaurant tech company Hazlnut.
Hazlnut raised $3 million from Atlanta Ventures and PS27 Ventures Rhea Fund in a Series A funding round. This will be the second investment round from PS27 Ventures who now owns a large share of the SaaS company.
“We have been working with the Hazlnut team side by side since our first investment in 2018,” PS27 Ventures CEO Jim Stallings said in a statement. “This proves the value of the PS27 process and that outside investors are looking at First Coast companies. We are pleased to partner with Atlanta Ventures to help scale Hazlnut to the next level.”
Hazlnut allows restaurants to use its software templates for online ordering, menus and apps.
In a previous interview with the Business Journal, Dick Sikes, founder and CEO at Hazlnut, said he aimed to fund new channels of growth for things like online chat-based ordering where customers can talk to an employee via the app. Hazlnut has clients across the globe including Southern California, Northeast Texas and Puerto Rico. Sikes said the app is for mid- to small-sized restaurants looking to expand their online presence but might not have the resources to do so.
The company was funded in part by the PS27 Rhea Fund announced earlier this year. It is a $20 million venture capital fund that will invest in 20-30 companies over the next three years. The PS27 Rhea Fund seeks to invest in early-stage solutions in SaaS, HealthTech, FinTech, Sustainability, and E-Commerce companies that can scale rapidly.
Stallings said the Rhea Fund also has an interest in founders who are women, veterans, and people of color. Hazlnut will be the third company to be included in the fund.
“We would not be here today without the PS27 Ventures team,” Sikes said in a statement. “With the capital, content, and connections we’ve made by working with PS27, we were able to get where we are today.”
