Presto is a technology platform for the restaurant industry developed by Redwood City–based E la Carte. The company targets the customer-facing technology market for full-service and quick-service restaurants. Their products consist of

computer vision Computer vision tasks include methods for image sensor, acquiring, Image processing, processing, Image analysis, analyzing, and understanding digital images, and extraction of high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical ...

speech recognition Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enable the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers. It is also ...

, AI, tabletop tablets, and server tablets. As of October 2019, customers include Applebee's, Chili's, Outback Steakhouse,

Denny's Denny's (also known as Denny's Diner on some locations' signage) is an American table service diner-style restaurant chain. It operates over 1,400 Restaurant, restaurants in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and several other internationa ...

Checkers Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), is a group of Abstract strategy game, strategy board games for two players which involve forward movements of uniform game ...

, and Red Lobster.

History

Presto, then known by its legal name E la Carte, was founded by Rajat Suri in October 2008 in

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. Suri was a graduate student at MIT when he created the first E la Carte product, a tablet that allows restaurant customers to order and pay through a tablet. He left his graduate program to become a waiter in order to learn more about the restaurant industry. Previously, Suri was a cofounder of Zimride, now known as

Lyft Lyft, Inc. is an American company offering ride-hailing services, motorized scooters, and bicycle-sharing systems in the United States and Canada. Lyft sets fares, which vary using a dynamic pricing model based on local supply and demand a ...

. E la Carte was accepted into Silicon Valley–based seed accelerator

Y Combinator Y Combinator, LLC (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator and venture capital firm launched in March 2005 which has been used to launch more than 5,000 companies. The accelerator program started in Boston and Mountain View, Californi ...

in 2010. The same year, Suri moved to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and opened a

Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

office. E la Carte first installed its touchscreen tablets in restaurants in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

in 2011. The tablets could take orders, act as a

sommelier A ''sommelier'' ( , , ), ''chef de vin'' or wine steward, is a trained and knowledgeable wine professional, normally working in fine restaurants, who specializes in all aspects of wine service as well as wine and food pairing. The role of the ''s ...

, receive payments, split bills, and calculate tips. In August 2011, Lightbank invested $4 million in venture capital in E la Carte. In June 2013,

Intel Capital Intel Capital Corporation started off as the investment arm of Intel Corporation in 1991 and in January 2025, it spun off as a standalone investment fund. Intel Capital makes equity investments in a range of technology startups and companies off ...

invested $13.5 million in Series B funding in E la Carte, with participation from Romulus Capital. Later that year, E la Carte relocated to a new office in Redwood City. Applebee's signed a deal with E la Carte to deploy 100,000 tableside tablets to its locations by the end of 2014. E la Carte rebranded to Presto in 2018. In 2019, Presto raised $30 million in growth financing led by Recruit Holdings and Romulus Capital to grow its AI platform. Presto began piloting its computer vision program called Presto Vision in October 2019. In November 2021, Presto announced a merger with Ventoux CCM Acquisition Corp. The company will be renamed Presto Technologies, Inc. In February 2024, Presto named Gee Lefevre as its new CEO. Lefevre was tasked with a turnaround of the business following several months of instability. Three months after his appointment, Lefevre conducted a number of interviews indicating a "reemergence" of Presto with several new product advancements and overall business stability.

Products

The Presto platform operates on the Android operating system, and supports

EMV EMV is a payment method based on a technical standard for smart card, smart payment cards and for payment terminals and automated teller machines which can accept them. EMV stands for "Europay International, Europay, Mastercard, and Visa Inc., ...

and mobile payment technologies. Presto's products include

, conversational AI voice ordering, AI, line-busting tablets, server handheld tablets, tabletop tablets for guests, and kiosks. With Presto systems, restaurants experience an increase in check sizes, turn tables at least 10 minutes faster, and increase tips by an average of 16%. In 2020, Presto began to offer a contactless dining system to restaurants in response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The system enables restaurant customers to scan a QR code with their phone in order to view the menu, place orders, and make payments. In August 2021, Presto launched its new voice capability . The system is powered by a set of highly accurate conversational artificial intelligence technologies. Presto introduced its all-in-one restaurant platform in September 2021 called Presto Flex.

References

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