SOFTWARE: Tony Smith making Restaurant365 IPOready

CEO Tony Smith says Restaurant365 will become “IPO ready,” whether or not it actually goes public.

The company, whose software helps restaurants perform back-of-the-house functions, now has a customer base topping 30,000 and saw revenue “well above” $60 million last year.

“This year will be much higher,” Smith told the Business Journal. “We’ve made a major push in payroll.”

The firm has launched a new business line as part of that push, R365 Workforce, which will help clients “manage payroll, HR, hiring, and we have other things bundled in there to help employees, like being able to offer daily pay—pay people in the restaurant every day that they work, instead of them having to wait for two weeks,” Smith explained.

Smith is one of three co-founders of Restaurant365, which makes software that helps restaurants with accounting, inventory management, scheduling, payroll and other management functions. That helps increase sales, control food costs and optimize labor.

“We’ve been growing at a solid click and adding restaurant locations,” Smith said.

The company has about 600 FTEs—fulltime equivalent employees.

Smith, a 2021 Business Journal Innovator of the Year Award winner, this year is the keynote speaker for the Sept. 8 IOTY Awards event being held at the Irvine Marriott.

IPO Ready

“I’d love for us to be IPO-ready in a couple of years,” Smith told the Business Journal on July 29.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean we would do it, but if you’re ready, I think it gives you the most options.”

The company’s payroll push follows its acquisition last June of Austin, Texas-based restaurant management platform Compeat Inc.

It’s focused on integrating Compeat and its customers “into the fold,” with Restaurant365 able to “utilize some of their products and ours with one another.”

Restaurant365 had raised $127.5 million across three funding rounds as of June 2019, and has had three funding rounds— including one for the Compeat acquisition—since then totaling an undisclosed amount, the company said.

Local Restaurant365 customers include BJ’s Restaurants Inc. of Huntington Beach, Blaze Pizza and Anaheim-based Waba Grill.