A Milwaukee company that makes automated sales and marketing software for restaurants has raised $12 million from investors to feed its use of artificial intelligence.
SpotHopper LLC raised the Series B funding from TVC Capital, a San Diego-based growth equity firm that previously led SpotHopper's $14 million Series A round. The startup has raised a total of $26 million to date.
The startup said it will use the funding to accelerate its use of artificial intelligence, including generative AI. Those technologies have taken off in recent months amid the popularity of the AI chatbot ChatGPT. Nationwide, investors are pouring billions into AI companies as they seek to tap into the latest tech gold rush.
"This new funding will allow SpotHopper to invest into all of our functional teams, delivering marketing workflows that have proven to accelerate revenues at lower cost with superior outcomes for independent restaurants and hospitality groups," SpotHopper co-founder and CEO Aleksandar Ivanovic said in a Tuesday statement.
Ivanovic founded SpotHopper in 2015 with his son Niko Ivanovic, who is the company's chief operating officer. Aleksandar previously founded and sold another software business called Webcom Inc. Before that, he was an engineer at Rockwell Automation Inc.
Well-known Milwaukee restaurants including Sobelman's, Story Hill BKC and Morel are among SpotHopper's existing customers. SpotHopper says it has thousands of customers and has grown more than 100% annually for the past five years.
SpotHopper has its headquarters in Milwaukee and also has offices around the U.S. and in Serbia, near where Aleksandar was born in the former Yugoslavia.
