Restaurant management platform Toast announced earlier this month that it has successfully raised $250 million in its Series E financing round. Toast’s latest stage of funding was led by TCV and Tiger Global Management; several existing investors also participated, including Lead Edge Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and a group of accounts and funds managed by T. Rowe Price Associates. The total amount raised during this round was based on a $2.7 billion valuation.
The success of their Series E funding highlights the five-year-old company’s tremendous growth in the past few years and helps to establish Toast as the country’s leading management platform for restaurants. In 2018 alone, Toast experienced a 148 percent increase in revenue as a number of globally recognizable restaurant brands such as Tartine Bakery, Joe Coffee Company and José Andrés’ ThinkFoodGroup signed on as clients.
TCV’s participation in Toast’s latest round of funding is in line with the firm’s general investment profile. With over $11 billion invested across 250 companies, TCV looks to partner with both public and private growth-stage technology companies. Included among the market-leading technology franchises in TCV’s investment portfolio are Netflix, Facebook, Spotify and ExactTarget.
In a press release about Toast’s latest funding round, TCV’s general partner David Yuan outlined what his firm looks for in an investment: “At TCV, we invest in companies that have the potential to reshape entire industries.” Yuan believes that Toast matches this mission statement, noting that “by providing restaurants of all sizes with access to innovative technology, Toast is leveling the playing field and leading the industry’s transition to the cloud.”
Yuan went on to point out that the additional capital provided by TCV’s investment will enable Toast to realize an even broader potential: “Our investment will enable Toast to extend their platform beyond point-of-sale and guest-facing technology, and in doing so, create a powerful SaaS platform with a superlative business model. “
As part of the terms for their participation in the Series E funding, Yuan will be joining Toast’s board of directors.
