Kea Raises $10M to Revolutionize Restaurant Phone Answering with AI

Kea is a recently established company providing restaurants with a modern solution to enhance a traditionally inefficient ordering method – phone orders.

Kea announced today that it has secured $10 million in Series A funding, spearheaded by Marbruck, with additional investment from Streamlined Ventures, Xfund, Heartland Ventures, DEEPCORE, Barrel Ventures and AVG Funds. The round also included contributions from individual investors such as Raj Kapoor (Lyft’s chief strategy officer), Craig Flom (a founding member of the Panera Bread team), Tony Lam (a Wingstop operator), and Jonathan Kelly (a Five Guys operator).

According to Founder and CEO Adam Ahmad, restaurants frequently struggle with staffing shortages, often lacking dedicated personnel to manage incoming phone calls. (Many individuals likely share the experience of calling a restaurant and being immediately put on hold.)

He also noted that phone ordering continues to be a significant channel, particularly with the rise in takeout and delivery services, which have become a primary revenue stream for numerous restaurants, especially during the pandemic. Helen Rosner of The New Yorker aptly stated that supporting restaurants involves “calling the restaurant directly.”

Ahmad explained that restaurants find the substantial fees charged by third-party ordering platforms to be “an unsustainable long-term solution.” Kea offers a technological solution designed to help restaurants efficiently manage a higher volume of phone orders, functioning as a “virtual cashier” that handles initial customer interactions, processes standard orders, and connects customers with a human employee when necessary.

The concept of an automated voice assistant might evoke negative experiences with complex bank or customer service systems. However, Ahmad emphasized that Kea’s AI differs significantly from these systems because it is specifically tailored for restaurant order-taking.

“We operate within a very focused area,” he explained. “Within the pizza industry, there are only a limited number of possible order combinations. We aren’t attempting to create a system that understands all language – it’s a focused model based on a menu.”

The Kea team provided a phone number allowing me to personally test the system. The process was simple and direct, involving providing my address and order details. A human employee can be connected to the call at any point. (During my demonstration, I was unintentionally transferred to a human, which prompted me to end the call quickly.)

Kea is currently implemented in over 250 restaurants, including Papa John’s, Donatos and Primanti Brothers, and reports an average labor savings of 10 hours per week, alongside a 23% increase in average order value. Ahmad intends to use the new funding to expand Kea’s reach to 1,000 restaurants across 37 states in 2021.