Deal helps fully integrate Tock into website-building platform, validates increasing appetite for buying restaurant tech firms
Website-building technology company Squarespace has acquired Tock, a reservation, order-taking and event management platform for restaurants. The cash-and-stock deal, valued at $400M, will continue to help evolve Squarespace’s suite, which also offers built-in ecommerce hosting. Tock’s capabilities in reservations, table management, takeout, and events will help Squarespace integrate an ideal solution for its customers to manage reservations, and accelerate sales through enhanced marketing, making it an ideal acquisition.
Nick Kokonas, Tock founder & chief executive and co-owner, and co-founder of the Alinea restaurant group, founded Tock in 2014 to provide an alternative reservation system solution to restaurants. In 2020, Tock expanded its services as result of the pandemic: the technology firm added the capability for carryout order-taking via Tock To Go.
Currently, Tock serves 7,000 hospitality operators, empowering them with a tool for reservations, table management, carryout operations, and events.
During the pandemic Tock expanded its services to include the capability for carryout order-taking. The option helped hospitality operators avoid linking orders to delivery companies for higher commission fees.
“I’ve long admired Tock’s vision to reimagine how reservation-based businesses connect with their customers, said Anthony Casalena, Squarespace founder and chief executive.. “We believe that together we will continue building on their success, bringing Tock’s capabilities to our all-in-one product suite in service of our customers in the hospitality industry and beyond.”
Tock’s transactions for prepaid experiences have totaled $1B. The company—one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in 2021—has also powered millions of standard reservations across 200 cities globally.
“Squarespace and Tock have a shared mission of elevating and enabling our customers’ success and passion,” added Kokonas, reflecting on the Tock acquisition.
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