Restaurant management platform provider Upserve, the top-funded startup in Rhode Island with backing from Vista Equity Partners, has been acquired by Canadian point-of-sale (POS) and e-commerce software provider Lightspeed POS for $430 million in cash and stock.
Founded in 2009 as Swipely, Upserve is likely the Ocean State's most well-known startup. The company provides POS hardware and software to restaurants, as well as analytics software meant to help proprietors maximize their sales. In May, for example, Upserve unveiled "AI 'Smart' Menu Optimization," which uses machine learning to bring a restaurant's most popular items to the top of the online ordering menu.
In an investor call on Tuesday evening, Lightspeed President Jean Paul Chauvet said it is that analytics software that put Upserve over the top.
"What's very exciting about this is, when you combine our Lightspeed case studies with [Upserve's] analytics engine and their models, you have the best platform out there," Chauvet said.
Lightspeed plans to integrate its platform with Upserve's, leveraging the Providence startup's 7,000 customer locations to gain brand recognition in the U.S. market. Upserve's leadership team will remain part of Lightspeed; Chauvet said Sheryl Hoskins, who took over as Upserve's CEO in late 2018, will take on "a big role" at the company.
Upserve has had a tumultuous year. The startup's success is tightly coupled with that of the restaurant industry, which has been roiled by the Covid-19 pandemic. In pivot after pivot, Upserve has turned its focus from in-person to online ordering; furloughed employees, then brought them back; and changed its fee structure multiple times, which in June led to public furor from some restaurateurs who had been fielding complaints from their customers.
Now, Lightspeed sees Upserve as a key part of its post-pandemic future. Chauvet said the 15-year-old company, which is headquartered in Montreal and operates internationally, is now seeing a "huge rush" to adopt its e-commerce and POS technologies in Australia, which has effectively eradicated the novel coronavirus from the continent.
"In markets where this is the case, such as Australia and South Africa, we are seeing very encouraging results," Dax Dasilva, CEO and founder of Lightspeed, said on the call. "Acting now prepares us for the rebound that we expect to occur globally."
In addition to Vista Equity Partners, Upserve has backing from First Round Capital, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Greylock Partners, Index Ventures and Shasta Ventures, among others.
