Blackbird Labs Raises $50 Million for Blockchain-Based Payment Platform Aimed at Reinventing Restaurant Loyalty |

Ben Leventhal, a well-recognized and formidable identify in restaurant expertise, is as soon as once more reshaping how eating places join with diners. The founding father of Eater and Resy has secured $50 million in recent funding for his newest enterprise, Blackbird Labs, a startup aiming to deal with some of the cussed challenges in hospitality: constructing actual, lasting loyalty—whereas serving to eating places retain extra of their shrinking margins.

At its core, Blackbird is an element funds platform, half loyalty engine, and half blockchain experiment. Already working with round 1,000 eating places, Blackbird plans to make use of the brand new capital to roll out a cross-restaurant loyalty program known as Blackbird Membership and broaden past its present hubs of New York, San Francisco, and Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston, with its celebrated eating scene, is a key proving floor. “Charleston punches above its class,” Leventhal mentioned in an interview with TechCrunch. “It’s an incredible restaurant metropolis for its dimension—a superb check marketplace for us.”

Blackbird’s proposition is daring: provide a frictionless fee expertise via an app-based system (dubbed Flynet) whereas seamlessly layering in loyalty factors that diners can use throughout taking part eating places. Behind the scenes, the platform is constructed on Coinbase’s Base blockchain, enabling new types of information possession and engagement. Flynet capabilities very similar to conventional fee processors—besides quicker and cheaper. Eating places accepting Blackbird’s app-based funds are reportedly saving 3-4% on processing charges in comparison with conventional suppliers. Diners, in the meantime, get loyalty factors not just for consuming out but in addition for interacting with the Blackbird community.

What units Blackbird aside is its imaginative and prescient of shared possession. As Leventhal describes it, diners and eating places will successfully grow to be stakeholders within the Blackbird ecosystem. “Customers will be capable to proceed to personal their profile,” Leventhal mentioned. Information about loyalty exercise and preferences is not going to simply reside with Blackbird however will stay within the fingers of shoppers and restaurant companions. It’s an strategy that attracts a stark distinction with centralized platforms like OpenTable, Toast, and Punchh, the place consumer information is basically locked away from eating places themselves.

The $50 million Collection B spherical was led by Spark Capital, with further funding from Coinbase Ventures, Amex Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)—all three of whom participated in Blackbird’s $24 million Collection A in 2023. Thus far, Blackbird has raised $85 million. Notably, each Coinbase and Amex have strategic ties to Leventhal. Amex acquired Resy in 2019, a deal that solidified Leventhal’s popularity for constructing extremely scalable restaurant tech platforms. Though Blackbird and Resy are presently separate, Leventhal hinted that future integrations could also be on the horizon. “We’re not integrating at this time, but it surely’s truthful to say we’ll,” he famous.

The newest valuation was not disclosed, however PitchBook pegged Blackbird’s earlier valuation at roughly $124 million.

Skeptics may query whether or not blockchain is important for restaurant loyalty. In any case, legacy platforms deal with funds and factors with out crypto rails. Leventhal himself acknowledges that blockchain wasn’t important: “I don’t assume it essentially has to be constructed on blockchain,” he mentioned. Nonetheless, he believes going “on-chain” unlocks future benefits—particularly, in how buyer profiles, loyalty balances, and restaurant participation are managed. The blockchain-based construction might additionally facilitate new types of co-ownership and worth sharing between eating places and clients, ideas largely out of attain for conventional loyalty applications. “A community that’s owned by the eating places and the diners themselves—that is one thing that solely blockchains allow,” mentioned Arianna Simpson, common companion at a16z.

Blackbird’s bold mannequin arrives at a important time for eating places. In accordance with the Nationwide Restaurant Affiliation, common restaurant profitability has plummeted to below 5%, down from 20% 20 years in the past. Rising meals prices, increased wages, and altering client habits have made survival more durable than ever. In the meantime, viral traits on platforms like Instagram and TikTok can convey throngs of diners to a restaurant’s door—however not essentially translate into lasting loyalty or sustainable profitability. “There’s a disconnect within the restaurant trade between the recognition and the depth of client love for eating places and in the end the profitability of the trade,” Leventhal famous.

That disconnect, he believes, is a ripe alternative to create deeper, extra sustainable relationships between eating places and their greatest clients—powered by extra environment friendly, clear expertise.

With Blackbird Membership launching quickly, and enlargement plans outdoors its preliminary cities, Blackbird’s subsequent chapter might cement its place as a serious participant in restaurant tech—particularly if it will possibly show that blockchain-enabled loyalty isn’t only a buzzword, however a long-lasting benefit. It’s a wager that Blackbird’s early backers—and the 1000’s of eating places already signed up—are banking on.