Make Door-to-Door Bookings For Your Entire Travel Itinerary With Routofy
Founded in April 2014 by Ahmed Sharief, Hyderabad-based startup, DineDesk is a cloud based reservation, table management system and marketing platform for the restaurants. It covers every aspect of restaurant management with Online Reservations, Table Management, Wait List Management, Guest CRM, Feedback, Marketing, Billing, POS, Analytics and Statistics as its core features by working within a B2B model. In an interaction with BWDisrupt, founder Ahmed Sharief says, “Our vision is to be one of the first startups to provide a unique platform to manage customer facing operations for restaurants worldwide. In countries like India and the US where we have access, we have our own sales force. In other countries, we have sformulated strategic partnerships and have a network of resellers selling for us.”
Functioning
DineDesk is unique in its solutions whereby it helps a restaurant business have direct control over their assets, accept bookings and promote activity using social media platforms, partners, their own websites, mobile websites, and apps. Essentially, DineDesk offers a centralized mechanism to manage restaurants assets. With DineDesk, a restaurant can configure reservation widgets, deals and menu widgets on their web, mobile and social assets. Using the DineDesk control panel, a restaurant may decide to post a deal, a coupon, an update or even a change in their menu and it automatically updates on the restaurant’ssocial media pages (Facebook, Twitter, Google), the restaurant website, mobile website, appand other partner websites. After which, the restaurant can start accepting bookings from multiple sources and use DineDesk’s table management and operation management tools to manage their business more methodically. It offers additional services and solutions to restaurants not having their own website, mobile website or app by designing all of these for the restaurant, free of cost and integrating it with DineDesk. Social media services like Facebookare also closely integrated. If the restaurant is new to social media (Facebook, Twitter or Google+), as a part of the restaurant setup, DineDesk offers free social media setup and training. Triggering Point
Ahmed Sharief met up with his friends who were restaurant operators over a few business lunches. They often griped of the operational and marketing issues that they faced. Enquiring further, Ahmed heard their complaints regarding a lack of automation in many restaurants. A lot ofrestaurants continue to rely on paper and pen in managing their operations. Ofthose restaurants which decided to go ahead and automate their operations, complained about heavy setup and exorbitant recurring costs they had incurred in the process. "This made us wonder why there wasn’t an affordable solution out there. Which is when we decided to offer a cost effective and easy to use 360-degree suite of tools andholistic solutions that could assist in everything from managing reservations to operations and even feedback," Ahmed states. Key Features
DineDesk provides uncomplicated and highly adaptable solutions to restaurants with key features like:
? Table Management (Accepting bookings from mobile website or app, restaurant website, phone, Facebook and so on). ? Deal management for better publication and marketing of deals. ? Guest Data, Feedback and History. ? Customer communication to boost customer fulfilment and loyalty. ? Reporting and Analytics to support management in taking informed decisions. ? Mobile/iPad compatible applications for increased productivity, wider visibility and better accessibility. ? Menu/Order Management, in house, take away, home delivery and pre ordering wait list for an improved dining experience. ? Marketing tools like social media, email marketing and third party integrations. ? Widgets seamlessly integratedwith any third party providers. ? Centralized control over information across chain. ? Effortless setup with no special hardware required. Can be easily accessed from laptops, desktops, tablets, mobile phones and any internet connected devices. One of the most important features has to be the DineDesk Control Panel, which facilitates a centralized control of all operational activities. Offers, deals, coupons, menu changes, reservations and so on, can all be configured via this special platform. It seamlessly integrates with social media platformsto ensure that any changes made by a restaurantare immediately reflected on its various social media platforms, as well as on the restaurant and mobile websites. An invaluable feature for small-scale establishments is DineDesk’s offer to set up and manage restaurant and mobile websites which serves as real boon. Another special feature is DineDesk's online Marketing platform which uses integrated email Marketing, SMS Marketing, Events, Deals, Menus, Social Media publishing and monitoring tools. Point of Difference
"There is worldwide demand for quality restaurant management software and restaurant owners cannot ignore the need for it. DineDesk aims to move quickly into this space and satisfy this demand in all parts of the globe. We are pushing through in countries like Dubai, Singapore, Thailand and South Africa, where our American counterparts can't compete," declares a decided Ahmed Sharief. Finances
DineDesk has previously raised seed round from angel investors. These funds were used to develop the product, develop technology, formulate initial business model, a marketing team, launch the beta product, generate partnerships in few countries, branding and marketing. The startup is seeking another round of funding to scale up their business, refine its business model, grow a wider network of partnerships to ensure a launch of DineDesk to several other countries, build sales force across different geographies, expand team/management and an advisory board seen in Visista Advisory. Employing the services of Mr. K. Sriram, co-founder of Visista Advisory, DineDesk seeks to receive assessments, feasibility reports, business excellence services, enterprise risk, corporate strategy, organization strategy, business unit strategy, marketing strategy, funding strategy and financial planning. Challenges & Opportunities
As a global company with a global perspective, it was a huge challenge for DineDesk to design its system to fits across geographies and be flexible in adjusting to the existing processes of restaurants. Research estimates approximately 8-10 million restaurants worldwide, with about 1.4 million in Europe and 800,000 in the US. Currently DineDesk’s accessible market includes only restaurants that take reservations, promote themselves online or engage in social media.This is estimated to be around 290,000 restaurants. Traction details
Within a few months of its launch, DineDesk has signed up close to 120 restaurants and 5 partners across UAE, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Philippines. It will be reaching to a figure of 1000 restaurants by the end of 2016. They have recently released the iPad and Android tablet version, which are currently in beta testing. Future Plans
As DineDesk will be reaching a figure of 1000 restaurants by end of 2016, it is intended to further build its network of reselling partnerships across US, Australia, Japan, China, Latin America, Europe and Middle East in the coming years. “We would like to show a growth rate of around 45% in revenues and also refine our business model.” insists Ahmed. DineDesk currently operates in India, Thailand, UAE, Indonesia, Singapore and USA. Advice to new entrants
Food space has lots to offer across sections of businesses and we have seen lots of food tech companies that have mushroomed over the years. Few have seen success and others have wound up after utilizing huge capital inflexed into them. Food industry is one that is growing at a very rapid pace. Restauranteurs are willing to invest in technology that helps them generate more business and organize it effectively. Proper long term strategy and patience are keys to success and DineDesk helps doing just that. Share this article:

Dine Desk: An Initiative That Helps Restaurants Manage and Market Their Business

Join over 1,00,000 top professionals! Sign up to get fresh updates delivered to your inbox
Get our newsletter thrice a week. We don't spam
DineDesk: A Startup that Helps Restaurants to Manage and Market their Business
by Sujata Sangwan Leave a Reply
Managing and marketing a restaurant is a serious undertaking that requires commitment, diligence, tact and understanding. To run it smoothly, everything should be planned from start to finish. But how to do that? One such startup functional in this space is DineDesk which helps restaurants with their end-to-end tasks management. Founded in April 2014 by Ahmed Sharief, Hyderabad-based startup, DineDesk is a cloud based reservation, table management system and marketing platform for the restaurants. Working on B2B model, the startup helps restaurants in managing and marketing their business. Its core features include online reservations, table management, waitlist management, guest CRM, feedback, marketing, billing and POS, analytics and statistics. Also, the company is launching its B2C business by the brand name of ReserveDine which is a restaurant discovery, reservation, reviews, analytics and content driven platform. The startup claims that the new ReserveDine platform will be different from current discovery portals that are in the market. The user experience and the verified content brings in the differentiator. Talking about the startup, Ahmed told iamwire that, “Our vision is to be the first to provide a platform to manage customer facing operations for restaurants globally. In certain geographies like US and India where we have access, we have our own sales force to sell it. In other countries, we have formulated strategic partnerships across different geographies and have a network of resellers doing sales for us.”
DinesDesk currently operates  in India, Thailand, UAE, Indonesia, Singapore and USA. Genesis
During a few business lunches at restaurants, Ahmed met with a group of friends who were restaurant operators. They often spoke about operational and marketing issues that they face. Probing further, Ahmed heard from them complains regarding lack of automation in many restaurants. There are lot of restaurants that still use paper and pen for managing their operations. And those restaurants that had automated their operations complain about heavy setup and monthly recurring cost incurred. “Alongside they had issues about using several solutions for their different needs including reservations, operations, marketing, order taking, feedback etc; this made us think why not offer a solution with 360 degree suite of tools, a solution that could assist in managing reservations to operations and feedback. That’s where the concept of Dine Desk was born,” added Ahmed. What problems is it solving? Restaurant operations are inherently complex, from marketing to dining room management. Large percentage of restaurants still use the traditional paper based reservation book and feedback mechanism. Restaurants that use technology complain about systems being complicated to use, expensive to setup and high recurring costs. And worst of all, the tools lack integration, forcing restaurants to work with multiple vendors, learn many systems, often purchase special hardware, and remember endless passwords. It also becomes difficult to aggregate bookings and deals from multiple sources. Restaurants need several providers to manage their IT and social assets like website, mobile website, mobile app, Facebook, twitter, Google plus etc. Managing the assets require specialized skills or outsourcing to IT providers. DineDesk is solving this by offering premium 360-degree suite of products with guest experience at a affordable cost. DineDesk offers restaurants an integrated suite of tools to manage all aspects of online marketing, reservations and guest management on their Android mobile. Funding raised
DineDesk raised $100,000 seed round from angel investors. These funds were used to develop the product, build technology and marketing team, develop initial business model, launch beta product, formulate partnerships in a few countries, branding and marketing. The startup is now looking to raise $ 500,000 to scale up the business, refine its business model, grow network of partnerships to launch DineDesk to several other countries, build sales force across different geographies, expand team or management and advisory board etc. Traction numbers
Within a few months of its launch, DineDesk has signed up close to 120 restaurants and 5 partners across UAE, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Philippines. It will be reaching to a figure of 1000 restaurants by end of 2016. Present status
The firm has just released the iPad and Android tablet version, currently in beta testing. Monetization Model
In those geographical areas where DineDesk has its presence; it sells a monthly subscription to restaurants at $50, which is its initial offering. In other countries, where the firm has employed a partner or reseller, the startup retains about 50-60% of the monthly subscription fee. With the new ReserveDine, it intends to charge restaurants a fee per every booking or order taken through it. Future plans
The startup will be reaching to a figure of 1000 restaurants by end of 2016. Also, it intend to build its network of reselling partnerships across US, Australia, Japan, China, Latin America, Europe and Middle East in coming years. “As we keep expanding our B2B product Dine Desk, we also envision adding up close to 3000 Restaurants on ReserveDine. We would like to show a growth rate of about 45% in revenues and refine our business model as well,” said Ahmed. We envision “Making things Easier” in this vast ecosystem of restaurant industry. Truly a disrupter of business models, DineDesk is making its presence felt. Market Opportunities and Competition
Research estimates 8-10 million restaurants worldwide, with about 800,000 in the US and 1.4 million in Europe. DineDesk’s current addressable market includes only restaurants that take reservations, engage in social media, or promote themselves online. It estimate it to be around 290,000 restaurants. As a global company, DineDesk has different competitors in different geographies. In US market, it has two competitors – OpenTable and Yelp Seatme. Other player in this market include Zomato which had acquired US-based restaurant reservations and table management platform NexTable in April 2015, and launched restaurant reservation service in India, by the name of ZomatoBook . Another firms playing in similar space are WowTables which was earlier known as GourmetItUp, and DineOut which has been acquired by Times Internet Ltd’s listing service TimesCity.

DineDesk: A Startup that Helps Restaurants to Manage and Market their Business

DineDesk: A Startup that Helps Restaurants to Manage and Market their Business - iamWire

Unicorn Software Solutions

Radiant Sage

Hardware and software for restaurant management, bookings, staffing, mobile restaurant payments, inventory management, cloud kitchens, and more. On-demand food delivery services are excluded from this collection.

Restaurant Tech

DineDesk is a cloud-based company that offers online restaurant reservations and table management systems. Their services include managing online reservations and guest wait-listing with SMS notifications. DineDesk serves the hospitality sector by providing solutions for restaurants. It is based in Hyderabad, India.

Date	10/20/2015
Round	Angel
Amount	$0.1M
Investors	Undisclosed Angel Investors
Valuation	$XXM
Revenue	0 FY undefined
Sources	1

How VCs Use CB Insights

Professional Services

Platform Overview

DineDesk

Total Raised

Funding, Valuation & Revenue