Owner.com, a provider of websites, online ordering and other digital tools for local restaurants, has raised $120 million in a Series C funding round that brings the company’s valuation to $1 billion.
The round was led by Alex Kurland of venture capital firm Meritech and Shalini Rao of VC firm Headline and included strategic investments from several restaurant industry leaders, including Sweetgreen CEO Jonathan Neman and Cava CEO Brett Schulman.
The company said the investment will help it scale “from startup to generational company.”
Owner says its goal is to help restaurants and other local businesses grow their business online, where more and more transactions are happening. It offers things like websites, loyalty programs and digital marketing and aims to help level the playing field between small restaurants and large chains.
It’s also investing in artificial intelligence. On Tuesday, it unveiled a new product called AI Executives—AI-powered chatbots with expertise in marketing, finance and technology that restaurants can “hire” as assistants. The bots were developed using data collected from the thousands of restaurants that use Owner.
Owner co-founder Adam Guild dropped out of high school to start the company in 2018. It initially offered reservations for restaurant chains but shifted gears to online ordering when the pandemic hit. It has grown quickly since then behind a series of funding rounds, including a $33 million Series B in January 2024. It now works with more than 10,000 restaurants and says it has multiplied its annual recurring revenue every year since it was founded.
The latest valuation makes Owner a unicorn—startup-speak for a $1 billion, venture-backed company.
Last month, Owner was sued by rival Popmenu over an online tool that grades restaurant websites. Popmenu alleged that the tool gives its websites artificially low scores, which has hurt its business. Owner denied the claims and called Popmenu an “unhappy competitor.”
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