Korean food-tech startup Ward, the operator of ‘Catch Table,’ a real-time restaurant reservation platform, has completed a series C investment of 30 billion won ($24 million). Altos Ventures led this investment, and existing investors Company K Partners, Daol Investment ( formerly KTB Network ), Korea Investment Partners, and Orion Asset Management also made additional investments.
In particular, Altos Ventures, which has invested in leading domestic companies such as Woowa Brothers and Toss, participated in this investment for the first time, raising expectations from industry insiders about the growth potential of Catch Table. Catch Table succeeded in attracting new investments for the first time in a year since the last Series B investment and secured a cumulative investment of about 42.5 billion won ($34 million).
Making a reservation for gourmets gets easier & quick
Catch Table is a real-time restaurant reservation platform introduced by three NHN members, including CEO Yong Tae-soon. Anyone who enjoys gourmet can search for a restaurant of their taste by region, menu, restaurant name, price, etc. In particular, you can easily make a reservation for a restaurant you want by entering the date, time, and a number of people. The app has surpassed 1.28 million monthly users (MAU) in about 1 year and 9 months since its official launch in September 2020.
By launching a timeline service, the community function has been strengthened, allowing users to record and share their gastronomic experiences and check the reviews of friends and influencers and even visited restaurants.
In addition, Catch Table helps to build a system that can minimize damage by providing a B2B reservation management solution to restaurants, making it possible to predict customer demand in real-time by providing reservation deposit management and vacancy notification functions. The ‘real-time reservation system,’ applied in the aviation and lodging fields, was also introduced to the F&B industry. As a result, about 3,000 restaurants including hotels, fine dining and Michelin-starred restaurants, have entered Catch Table so far.
Catch Table CEO Yong Tae -soon said, “Through this investment, Catch Table will strive to create a more advanced service with convenient reservations, various curation, and community reach.”
Hee-Eun Park, partner of Altos Ventures, who led this investment, said, “The capacity of domestic chefs is increasing, the number of people who enjoy gourmet food, and the base of the fine-dining market is expanding. Efficiency is urgently needed.” He said, “Catch Table brings high efficiency in restaurant operation through an integrated reservation solution and gives consumers a real-time reservation experience like never before.” He added, “I decided to make this investment to expect that Catch Table will serve as a bridgehead in the future as global interest in Korean food culture is growing.”
Meanwhile, Catch Table is recruiting across all occupational groups, including data engineers, data scientists, server (JAVA) developers, UI/UX designers, service planners, and marketing.
Also Read,
- Korean startup DamoGO’s app helps reduce food waste by selling ‘unsold’ food from restaurants, stores & farms
- Korean startups offering unique personalized services as ‘revenge travel’ picks up
- Yanolja expanding business in rental cars with strategic investment
- Korean startups’ thriving in the food & delivery market with ‘service robots’
