Food delivery apps and mobile ordering options thrived during the pandemic, and their popularity has not diminished. Hoping to further capitalize on this trend, Calabasas-based Curbit, which offers artificial intelligence tools to help restaurants manage online ordering, order throttling and customer wait times, is looking to grow the customer-facing aspects of its platform through a new partnership with Utah-based Ovation Up Inc.

Curbit’s platform uses AI and machine learning to analyze customer demand and kitchen activity, which it uses to create a historic model of patterns in customer activity and number of orders on any given day of the week. 

This model is then combined with information from the kitchen’s operational system about how long individual orders take to cook. Its platform is currently being used in more than 100 kitchens, including at restaurant chains like Pasadena-based Dave’s Hot Chicken, Cava, Smashburger and Culver City-based Tender Greens.

“We close the gap so that when they get there, their food is as fresh as possible,” Curbit Chief Executive Fran Dougherty told the Business Journal in November. 

Through the partnership, customers ordering through a brand that utilizes Curbit and Ovation’s services will receive order updates from Curbit prior to pickup and a follow-up SMS thread from Ovation following order pickup. Customers can then share any feedback and rate their experience. Ovation’s main offering is an SMS solution to facilitate guest feedback and resolution of customer complaints.