A new mobile app called Table8 that allows foodies to book last-minute reservations at hard-to-get-into restaurants has raised $4.6 million in fresh funding, including cash from Bellevue-based Concur Technologies’ Perfect Trip Fund.
Table8 just recently launched in San Francisco, with restaurant-goers able to pay a fee of $20 or more to slide into open slots at restaurants such as Range, The Slanted Door and Aziza. Reservations can be made from a few weeks to a few hours before the desired time.
It will use the new funds to expand into new cities, using data from Concur to help make the decisions. New York is coming up next.
“Finding a hard-to-get reservation at the last minute is one of the great challenges for the business traveler and Table8 has created a unique and disruptive solution to this problem,” said John Torrey, Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy at Concur, in a release. “We launched the Perfect Trip Fund with this exact objective in mind – find the companies who are focused on delivering the perfect trip by innovating around important traveler needs.”
Table 8 plans to integrate its service into Concur’s mobile apps as well, making it easier for people on the go to book restaurant reservations at the last minute.
The company is led by venture capitalist Pete Goettner and former Twitter vice president of business operations Santosh Jayaram. It faces competition from OpenTable, the big dog in online restaurant reservations with more than 31,000 restaurants in its system.
The Wall Street Journal compares Table8 to StubHub, the online ticket exchange service for sporting events and concerts, since restaurant managers are able to sell tables that may have been kept in reserve for frequent guests, celebrities or other special VIPs.
Concur, which offers an online service to better manage travel and entertainment expenses, established its $150 million Perfect Trip Fund in 2012. Investments include Buuteeq, Yapta, Nor1, Visage and others.
