Restaurant SaaS platform Zenchef raises €6 million in venture financing to accelerate its European expansion and become the leading digital hub for restaurants.
Paris – November, 6th 2015
Clipperton Finance, a leading European corporate finance firm focused on the Technology, Media and Healthcare industries, announced the closing of a €6 million financing for Zenchef (formerly 1001menus), a one-stop SaaS marketing and CRM platform for restaurants, in a round led by Edenred Capital Partners, with the participation of new investors XAnge, METRO, and historical investors Elaia Partners, Kima Ventures and L’Accélérateur Capital Partners. With this new round of financing, Zenchef is now ideally positioned to realise its international ambitions and tap into a broad industry comprising over 500,000 independent restaurants across Europe while further strengthening product innovation.
Launched in 2010 as 1001menus, Zenchef has developed a unique mix of cloud-based tools that enable independent restaurant owners to easily manage & monitor their digital presence, customer base and bookings. Through its SaaS platform, Zenchef simplifies the online and mobile channel from end to end, enabling the creation and management of a digital storefront, traffic conversion, e-reputation, customer loyalty improvement and multi-platform visibility.
Over the last three years, Zenchef has established itself as a preferred partner for more than 2,500 independent restaurant owners and ambitions to play an even more central role within the restaurant ecosystem by opening up its platform to third-party FoodTech application vendors.
With an established stronghold in France and growing presence in the UK and Spain, Zenchef can now also count on Edenred and METRO’s vast network of affiliated restaurants and customers in 42 and 26 countries respectively. Commenting on the announcement, Xavier Zeitoun, CEO and co-founder of Zenchef said “Zenchef is now at a key stage in its growth. We have quickly managed to secure a leading position in one of Europe’s biggest markets, France, thanks to a unique service that addresses the growing issues that independent restaurant owners face in the digital sector and risk intermediation.
This new funding will allow us to reinforce such leadership, while speeding up our development in significant markets, such as Germany, Italy, the UK and Spain.“Philippe Dufour, Executive Vice President, Alternative Investments at Edenred, also commented: “In today’s rapidly evolving hospitality sector, we are convinced that Zenchef’s unique positioning solves a major pain point that restaurant owners are increasingly facing. The work accomplished by Xavier and his team over the last 3 years demonstrates Zenchef’s ability to constantly enrich its offering and stay relevant. With an additional €6 million of funding from Edenred and other experienced shareholders, Zenchef has got everything it needs to consolidate its leadership and become a major player in its market.”
“Managing the “exterior world” of a restaurant, being the digital hub and over time the core of its API’s, this is what attracted us to the Zenchef project.” added Cyril Bertrand, partner at XAnge.
For more information, please contact:
Clipperton Finance
Nicolas von Bülow, Partner, nvonbulow@clipperton.net
Antoine Ganancia, Senior Associate, aganancia@clipperton.net
Baptiste Clair, Associate, bclair@clipperton.net
Zenchef
Xavier Zeitoun xavier@zenchef.com
About Clipperton Finance
Clipperton Finance is a European independent corporate finance advisory firm exclusively dedicated to the Technology and Healthcare industries, advising high growth companies on M&A transactions, debt financings and equity offerings. With offices in London, Berlin, and Paris and an international reach,Clipperton Finance is a European leader in Technology financial advisory. Over the past 15 years, the team has successfully completed more than 150 high profile transactions globally.For more information, visit www.clipperton.net