Velocity Mobile Ltd., a London and New York-based provider of an international digital hospitality service, closed a $16M in Series A funding round.
Velocity also acquired Cover Inc., a mobile payments app accepted at over 350 restaurants in NYC, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The acquisition, of undisclosed amount, will accelerate the expansion of Velocity’s global hospitality platform, which connects premier restaurants with affluent diners, empowers them to settle their bill directly from their phone, and builds loyalty through tailored status and rewards programs at leading venues.
Cover employees will join the Velocity team across multiple disciplines, and Velocity will invest in the Cover mobile apps and payment infrastructure. Venues will have the option to keep the stand-alone iPad-based solution or upgrade to Velocity’s payment and loyalty platform fully integrated with their POS, which includes a venue dashboard and customer relationship management (CRM) tools. In conjunction with the Cover transaction, Mark Egerman, Cover Co-Founder, will become the company’s Executive Vice President, Payments. Andrew Cove, Cover Co-Founder, will join the Velocity advisory board.
The deal added Spark Capital, OATV, and Lerer Ventures to Velocity’s list of shareholders, which includes angels Tom Glocer, former Thomson-Reuters CEO, and Shukri Shammas, Initial Capital Partner.
According to a note, the company now expects to announce further acquisitions as it expands its global presence in the world’s premier hospitality cities.
Led by Zia Yusuf and Alex Macdonald, Velocity operates a venue network now including hundreds of iconic restaurants and hospitality groups – and 21 Michelin stars – in London, NYC, SF, LA, including Carbone, Daniel, Cosme, The Slanted Door, Al’s Place, smoke.oil.salt, Republique, Sketch, and Gymkhana.
FinSMEs
23/09/2015