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Sunday, the French-origin restaurant tech company managing its rapid North American growth from Atlanta, is already making use of its recent $100 million capital raise with an acquisition in Canada.
The company bought Montreal-based CHK PLZ, which also provides QR-code payment capabilities that Sunday says cut down on wait times and restaurants turn more tables and boost tips.
The Quebec firm adds not only 300 more restaurant clients on top of the 1,500 Sunday has already signed since entering the U.S. in April, but also brings digital ordering capabilities on top of live payments at the table, reflecting CHK PLZ’s efforts to help small restaurants survive during the pandemic.
Christine de Wendel, CEO of North America for Sunday, said the complementary product offerings and compatible team cultures will make for an easy melding of CHK PLZ’s six-person team into the Sunday infrastructure.
CHK PLZ founder and CEO Roberto Casoli will become general manager of Canada for Sunday, running operations for the country from the company’s current base. The company was founded by three engineering students from McGill University.
“As we expand throughout North America, we will have local offices in each region. Hyper-localization is key for our business, so we value having teams on the ground in each region,” Ms. De Wendel told Global Atlanta in an email interview.
That won’t be too difficult in Canada, where she says the dining culture is similar to the United States and Western Europe, where the Sunday technology was proven out initially. The tech stacks of the two companies will be merged over time.
“There are a few local adaptations necessary,” Ms. De Wendel said. “For example in Canada, most diners pay for their meal individually, so the mechanics behind splitting a bill our very different.”
The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the $100 million funding round just announced “definitely made it possible to acquire CHK PLZ,” Ms. De Wendel said.
Sunday co-founder Victor Lugger said the quick adoption of Sunday and CHK PLZ technologies alike shows that the way diners pay at restaurants has “changed for good” thanks to the pandemic, and the combination of the two firms made sense given their dedication to innovating around the restaurant payment experience.
“Sunday and CHK PLZ both share the same passion for local restaurants and operate on the same basic principle of supporting local restaurants to survive in a post-pandemic world,” said Sunday cofounder Victor Lugger. “The acquisition was a natural fit.”
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