A Seattle area startup is looking to shake up the way we pay for our restaurant bills, tossing out the traditional pen-and-paper method for a new electronic device that they say is easier and more secure.
The company is called Viableware, and today it is announcing that it has raised $6.5 million in series B funding from Swiftsure Capital and others. Total funding now stands at $7.45 million, with the company still on the prowl for more funding as it looks to bring the technology to restaurants throughout the country.
Viableware’s RAIL device allows restaurant patrons to peruse a digital copy of the bill, calculate tips, split the bill, answer survey questions and then “self swipe” credit cards at the table. Customers use a stylus to sign the digital screen, and can choose to have a copy of the receipt printed off at the restaurant or emailed to their personal accounts.
So far, the company has been testing the device at P.F. Chang’s, Dickie Brennan’s, Ethan Stowell Restaurants and other establishments. But, with the new funding in place, CEO Joe Snell said that they will now “address the entire full-service restaurant industry from coast-to-coast.”
The RAIL device works in conjunction with point-of-sale systems from MICROS, NCR Aloha, and Dinerware, with Snell telling us that it is more secure than traditional payment options now in place. It also allows for additional services, and more intelligent tracking of customers’ tastes and behaviors.
Here’s a demo I got of the technology last year with Snell showing it off at Boom Noodle at Seattle’s University Village.
