XtraCHEF

XtraCHEF operates as a comprehensive financial and operational management platform specifically engineered for the restaurant industry. The company was established in 2015 by Andy Schwartz, Bhavik Patel, and Chaz Brown with the goal of making enterprise-level technologies accessible to restaurants of any size. The founders identified a significant gap in the market, as many restaurant operators were still relying on manual processes and basic spreadsheets to manage critical back-office functions. Schwartz brought his sales and marketing expertise from the enterprise software sector, while Patel contributed over 18 years of experience in designing and developing software solutions for document and receivables management. This fusion of experience led to the creation of a platform that applies technologies like optical character recognition (OCR) and machine learning to automate tedious back-of-house tasks.

The business serves a wide array of clients, from single-location mom-and-pop shops to large restaurant groups, hotels, and caterers. Its primary revenue stream is generated through a SaaS model, offering different subscription tiers, such as Essentials and Pro, to cater to varying client needs. The core of the platform is its accounts payable (AP) automation, which digitizes invoices using OCR technology, allowing operators to simply take a picture of an invoice to capture and process line-item details. This data then fuels a suite of tools for cost management, inventory management, and recipe costing. The platform's features enable restaurants to track food costs in real-time, monitor price fluctuations from vendors, manage inventory levels to reduce waste, and calculate the precise cost of each menu item to optimize profitability. By integrating with point-of-sale (POS) systems, it provides a holistic view of financial health by connecting spending data with sales data. A significant milestone in the company's history was its acquisition by Toast [NYSE: TOST], a major restaurant technology platform, on June 8, 2021, for approximately $49 million. This strategic move integrated XtraCHEF's back-office capabilities into Toast's end-to-end ecosystem, and the company was rebranded as XtraCHEF by Toast, with Schwartz and Patel remaining in their leadership roles.

Keywords: restaurant management software, accounts payable automation, invoice processing, food cost management, inventory management, recipe costing, restaurant technology, back-office automation, vendor management, culinary operations, restaurant finance, plate costing, prime cost analysis, hospitality SaaS, invoice digitization, menu engineering, cost of goods sold, restaurant analytics, supplier management, purchase order management