Settle, a mobile booking and payment service for restaurants developed by Kyiv(Kiev)-based startup Advice Wallet, has secured an undisclosed amount from the SMRK VC fund. The funds will be used to launch Settle in the American market.
“In the United States, there is a severe problem with wait-times at restaurants, as guests are waiting suffer through lengthy waits for tables and their food. Thus, local restaurants are interested in mobile pre-orders. We have reached agreements with 15 institutions regarding the launch of Settle. By the end of March, we will launch a new product oriented at the American market,” says Stas Matvienko, founder of the service.
The startup does not plan to compete with OpenTable and Reserve, competitors with similar functionalities. “Settle focuses on quick breakfasts and lunches in densely-populated business areas, while OpenTable and Reserve are focused on allowing users to reserve tables for dinner,” representatives of the startup told Siliconrus.com.
Settle is currently working on integrating with the American services Stripe, Yelp, and Locu and creating a version of the application for waiters.
The capital injection from SMRK VC is only part of a round of financing that the startup hopes will ultimately reach $1.5 million in total. Settle hopes to deal with U.S.-based investors and move to the United States, following the example of several Ukrainian startups.
In July 2014, Russian venture fund Life.Sreda committed itself to bring $1.5 million to the Ukrainian startup. The fund, however, changed its strategy and actually provided the startup with just a fraction (15%) of the agreed amount.
