Olo is a New York City-based B2BSaaS company that develops digital ordering and delivery programs for restaurants. The company’s platform allows customers to place restaurant orders from multiple origination points – from a brand’s own website or app, third party marketplaces, social media platforms, smart speakers, and home assistants. It also provides restaurants with order analytics and other services.[2]
History
Olo was founded as GoMobo in 2005 by Noah Glass in New Haven.[3][4] Its initial product was a mobile phone app that allowed users to pre-order food via text message from coffee shops for pick-up.[5][6]
In 2010, the company changed its name to Olo ("online ordering") to reflect its change from being a customer-facing application to being a B2B software company, "invisible" to customers,[7] used by restaurants to manage mobile device orders.[8]
Fortune reported in 2015 that restaurants using Olo software had served approximately 10 million customers.[9]
In 2017, Shake Shack launched the Shake App created by Olo; other restaurant brands using Olo software include Denny’s and Wingstop.[10]
In 2019, Olo formed a partnership with Google to provide the interface between Google Search and other Google applications to connect customers with local restaurants, allowing them to place orders directly, without using third-party ordering apps such as DoorDash and Postmates. ChowNow, a competitor B2B restaurant order-management SaaS company, has a similar arrangement with Google.[11]
In October 2021, Olo announced its acquisition of Wisely, a customer intelligence platform that uses consumer data to personalize online ordering.[13]
In February 2022, Olo launched a service called Olo Pay which enables customers to make one-click online purchases from any restaurant in Olo’s network.[14] In February 2022, Olo acquired Omnivore, a company that developed technology services for restaurants.[14]
Starting in August 2022, Olo stock plunged as restaurants delayed deploying their ordering software.[15] Following the drop in Olo’s share price, several law firms filed what Restaurant Business described as “stock-drop suits”, a common type of lawsuit following a substantial drop in a public company’s share prices where lawyers for investors attempt to show that the company intentionally withheld information related to the price fall from its shareholders.[16][17]
In January 2020, Bloomberg News reported that Olo might be seeking an IPO with a valuation of $1 billion.[21] Those plans were put on hold due to COVID-19. The company went public in March 2021[22] with a valuation of $3.6 billion.[23]
^Roof, Katie (January 21, 2016). "Olo Raises $40 Million To Expand Delivery Business". TechCrunch.com. Yahoo. Retrieved 21 September 2023. Olo previously raised at least $23 million in funding from RRE ventures, PayPal, Founder Collective and famed restaurateur Danny Meyer.
