Travelers have come to expect a sophisticated tech experience when it comes to lodging, according to Nizar Allibhoy, chief executive of downtown-based Keypr, which recently raised $12.8 million to market the notion.
“The entire traveling experience changed with the advent of the smartphone,” Allibhoy said. “You can buy a flight, download a boarding pass or order a car with the push of a button. It all comes to a grinding halt the moment you step into a hotel lobby.”
That’s where Keypr’s in-room tablet and smartphone app come in, allowing hotel guests to check in remotely, order room service or make spa reservations.
Almost 70 hotels and luxury apartment buildings across the country use the tablet and app, Allibhoy said, and Keypr is working to expand its distribution after raising the $12.8 million round earlier this month, bringing its total capital raised to $19 million.
The money will allow the company, founded in 2015, to make the hires necessary to get its backlog of about 200 venues up and running, said Allibhoy, who declined to disclose financial data.
About a dozen venues are using the tablet and app locally, including Hollywood Proper Residences in Columbia Square and Luxe Rodeo Drive Hotel in Beverly Hills.
The series A round was led by New York’s Karlani Capital, a venture firm focused on tech companies, which also contributed seed money in 2014. Allibhoy co-founded the company with hotelier Sabir Jaffer.
The company charges a software licensing fee based on usage rather than an upfront fee.
It provides hotels opportunities to make extra money by letting them send out a push notification to certain guests offering a spa special if the spa is underbooked, for example.
Food Trucks App
A Woodland Hills-based company offering something similar to Keypr, but for food trucks and their customers, officially launched last month.
Bistro Planet Inc., which started operating in beta in January, allows customers to track participating food trucks and order remotely for pickup. On the back end, the software streamlines the process by which food trucks book locations.
More than 300 trucks, including Woody’s Grill, are using the app in Los Angeles County, according to Roie Edery, Bistro Planet co-founder and chief executive.
The firm takes a cut of 5 percent of sales from its food truck clients, a total that includes the typical 2.75 percent credit card-processing fee, Edery said. It charges customers 99 cents a transaction.
There’s also a potential $25 million to be made from location booking annually, he said.
Edery estimated the county has 1,000 food trucks, which he said make $300,000 each on average annually.
Bistro Planet allows truck owners to maximize the potential revenue of a certain location by sending push alerts to customers who have signed up or emailing them ahead of time.
“There’s a mismatch between supply and demand,” Edery said. “We want to eliminate that. We have the ability to know where trucks are going to be in the future.”
Edery and co-founder Aleksey Kempner funded the startup, along with some individual private investors, and are looking to close a $1.5 million seed round. Edery and Kempner previously worked on the software for Marina del Rey’s Eaze, a marijuana delivery app launched in 2014.
The duo plans to take Bistro Planet national eventually, but are focusing on the L.A. area for the moment.
Fresh Pricing
West L.A.-based pizza chain Fresh Brothers is turning to technology to maximize profitability in the face of rising industry costs.
Fresh Brothers, in which Hermosa Beach-based Nolan Capital Inc. took a controlling stake in September, hired Tampa, Fla.-based consultancy Revenue Management Solutions to help the chain optimize its prices and menu, the companies announced last week.
The deal comes as the minimum wage in Los Angeles was set to increase to $12 from $10.50 an hour last week.
Revenue Management, which has offices across the world, has also worked with Sentinel Capital Partners’ Checkers Drive-In Restaurants Inc. and Rally’s Hamburgers Inc., according to its website.
Fresh Brothers, which began in Manhattan Beach in 2008, has 19 locations in Southern California, the company said.
“As an example of how (Restaurant Management) is helping us, we are taking a look at how we have had one size of salad – a really large salad – for nine years since the company’s inception,” Chief Financial Officer Tony Dellamano said in a statement. “Should we go to both a small and a large size? RMS is helping us determine the best course of action through customer testing and analysis. We would like to improve profitability on our salads, but not in a way that will turn customers off.”
Staff reporter Caroline Anderson can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 556-8329.
