News from the Wire

Olo launches Dispatch on-demand food delivery service

Thursday, September 03, 2015 — 11:54:28 (EDT)

New York, Sept. 3, 2015 -- Olo, the leading digital ordering provider for over 150 restaurant brands across the nation, today announced Dispatch, a revolutionary new service that enables restaurant operators to offer food delivery at scale.

Developed in cooperation with key clients and partners, Dispatch represents Olo’s first major product expansion that may either be used together with Olo's industry-leading digital commerce platform or as a standalone solution that connects to an existing ordering system. Today, over 14 million consumers actively use Olo’s platform to expedite their restaurant orders to Skip the Line®. The addition of Dispatch provides them the option of having orders conveniently delivered as well.

Olo’s new service was built in response to increasing consumer interest for on-demand restaurant delivery, reflected by the weekly use of delivery services nearly doubling over the past five years. With the industry awash with a new class of technology enabled Delivery Service Providers (DSPs) like Postmates, Caviar, DoorDash, and OrderUp (recently acquired by GRPN) seeking to service local delivery needs, there has not been a sustainable option for larger regional and national brands until now. Dispatch creates a national network of DSPs that augment a restaurant brand’s existing digital ordering program and enable its locations to offer delivery service regardless of location.

“The missing link in restaurant delivery today has been a logistics stack to synchronize orders - from the kitchen to delivery courier and the restaurant guest,” said Noah Glass, Founder & CEO of Olo. “Dispatch helps our clients properly coordinate delivery orders seamlessly, while supporting our mission to help them maximize restaurant revenue per square foot."

Dispatch integrates with today’s growing number of DSPs to provide a comprehensive delivery network and real-time price quotes for food delivery. Restaurant brands can now rapidly deploy delivery at scale with a service fully integrated into their point-of-sale platform and kitchen production systems, all the while maintaining a sovereign relationship with their loyal guests instead of forcing them to order from third-party marketplace websites.

"The growing use of delivery services is a great way for us to build our business, but today the delivery networks are very fractured," said Dave Lehn, CIO of Noodles & Company (NASDAQ: NDLS), an Olo partner. "We need a way to consolidate the providers so we can offer delivery across all of our 450+ restaurants."

How Dispatch Works: 1. A guest visits the restaurant’s existing digital ordering website or mobile app, builds an order and pays ahead

2. At checkout, the guest selects “Delivery”

3. Upon selecting “Delivery,” the guest enters their delivery address and receives one or multiple delivery time and price quote options from local DSPs that are available

4. The guest can then track their delivery from courier traveling to the restaurant, the order being fired into the kitchen for prep, the handoff of the order to courier, and finally the map-based, turn-by-turn delivery of that order from the restaurant to the delivery address – all live from the restaurant brand’s existing digital ordering website/app “More and more customers are using delivery than ever before and delivering a superior guest experience is our number one focus," said Jon Hartis, Senior Director of Information Technology at Which Wich, an Olo partner. "We believe providing a delivery service that consolidates all the providers into one standardized service across our locations will allow us to provide a consistent brand experience.”

Dispatch provides DSPs with access to Olo’s broad portfolio of restaurant brand clients at more than 10,000 locations. The technology prevents couriers from having to wait in line to order and wait for food preparation by coordinating courier travel time with food prep time for synchronized order handoff.

In partnership with select Olo clients, limited deployment of Dispatch will begin in Q3 2015 followed by general product availability in late Q4 2015.

About Olo

Olo helps restaurant brands maximize revenue per square foot by delivering faster, more accurate, and more personal service to their customers. Through beautiful, fully branded digital interfaces, Olo's enterprise-grade ordering platform integrates with the brands’ existing systems, opening new digital revenue streams, injected seamlessly into the restaurant’s operations. Olo is a pioneer in the industry, beginning with text message ordering on mobile feature phones in 2005. Today, over 14 million consumers use the Olo platform to order ahead and Skip the Line® at the restaurants they love. Clients include Baskin-Robbins (DNKN), Chipotle (CMG), Five Guys Burgers & Fries, Jamba Juice (JMBA), Noodles & Company (NDLS), Sweetgreen, Wingstop (WING), and more. Learn more at Olo.com .

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Source: Company press release.