Olo buys Wisely for $187M, its first acquisition as a public company

Dive Brief:

Olo has acquired customer intelligence and engagement platform Wisely for $187 million, according to a press release. This marks the first transaction Olo has made since it became public in March.
The transaction includes $77 million in cash and $110 million in Olo's class A common stock. The deal is expected to close during the fourth quarter.
Consolidation in the restaurant technology industry has been strong this year with many companies, including Par Technology, Squarespace, Restaurant365 and Toast, making purchases to expand their capabilities.

Dive Insight:

By purchasing Wisely, Olo is looking to help its restaurant partners create a more holistic view of their guests to boost engagement. Olo's current products include tools for digital ordering and integration with third-party delivery orders. What Wisely brings is software that features an all-in-one customer relationship management system with marketing automation including email and SMS; a table management, waitlist and reservation platform called Host; a guest sentiment tracker with aggregated and annotated guest reviews and feedback, and a customer data platform.

"As we look to the future of digital entirety for restaurants, tools that help brands harness customer data and turn it into applicable insights will be essential for them to better serve guests and manage the restaurant enterprise as a whole," Noah Glass, Olo's founder and CEO, said in the press release.

The acquisition will allow Olo to provide tools for the dining room experience as well, with Wisely's Host expanding Olo's capabilities beyond digital ordering. Following its IPO launch, Glass told Restaurant Dive he was interested in how customers can use technology to reserve a table and order at the same time or allow diners to be put on a waitlist, but place an order so they are served once they sit at their tables. He said these kinds of capabilities are a big deal for the family dining restaurants that it works with.

Outside of this acquisition, Olo is also expanding its own in-house capabilities. During the second quarter, the company launched Olo Rails Performance Tools to provide restaurants an ability to better understand their digital performance and revenue across channels, Glass said during the company's Q2 2021 earnings call. The company also developed the mobile version of Serve, the company's white label digital ordering platform, allowing restaurants to offer app versions of their digital storefronts, Glass said.

As the company expands its product suite, it has signed deals with large chains, including Potbelly and Jack in the Box. Olo also helped Wingstop deploy its virtual brand Thighstop, Glass said. The company also works with Checkers and Rally's, Culver's, Smoothie King, Dairy Queen and Krystal. Total revenue also increased 48% during the second quarter to about $36 million while its platform revenue increased 53% to $34.5 million year-over-year, according to the company’s Q2 2021 earnings release.