GROWTH CAPITAL
Owner Raises $240m Led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives at $2.3bn Valuation
Existing investors Meritech, Redpoint, Headline and Jack Altman also took part in the round, which the company says takes it past $100 million in annual recurring revenue.
Owner, which describes itself as an AI-native platform for local businesses starting with restaurants, has announced it has raised $240 million and reached a $2.3 billion valuation. Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives led the financing, with existing investors Meritech, Redpoint, Headline and Jack Altman also participating. Owner builds and runs technology and marketing for local businesses, including websites, online ordering, mobile apps, customer relationship management, customer support, point-of-sale systems and AI phone ordering. The company launched in 2020 and has surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue.
Scale across thousands of restaurants
Owner said independent restaurant owners will drive more than $1 billion in sales through its platform this year alone, and that it now powers more US locations than Domino's or Taco Bell, with more than 100 million American consumers having used the platform. The company reports that restaurants grow online traffic by 40% on average within 30 days of launching, and grow direct online revenue by more than 40% in their first year, while customers using a restaurant's branded app reorder at twice the rate of non-app users.
Expansion beyond restaurants planned
Adam Guild, co-founder and Chief Executive of Owner, said: "The world is racing to build AI to replace people's jobs. Owner is building AI to do the opposite: to do the jobs many small business owners have never been able to afford. Now, for the first time, local restaurants have the same tech advantages as the huge chains they compete with. And soon every small local business, including grocers and salons, will have those advantages too." The company said it next plans to serve every US independent restaurant, expand internationally, and extend its AI system to other local businesses including salons, spas and independent grocers. Since 2003, Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives has invested more than $17 billion in companies led by founders and chief executives across enterprise technology, financial technology, consumer and healthcare sectors.