PRESTO
Founders: Rajat Suri
Headquarters: Redwood City, CA
Year Founded: 2008
Year Romulus Invested: 2008
Presto, formerly known as E la Carte, is a pioneer in the era of smart dining. Its Presto tablet revolutionizes the dining experience, allowing restaurant patrons to access a touch-screen tabletop device to play games, place their orders, and even pay their bills. The Presto makes the casual dining experience more efficient and fun for customers, and it leads to faster table turns, increased average check sizes, and optimized labor utilization for restaurants.
The Presto-Romulus story:
We had just finished one of our first-ever coffee chats at MIT when we got an email from Raj noting that he had missed the event and asking if we could find another time to meet. That first meeting evolved into a 4AM investment decision (negotiated over Gchat, which is still largely how Raj and Krishna communicate), our first official portfolio company, and a partnership that has now spanned many years.
Romulus value in action: Engineering. The company’s engineering and product expertise has yielded a best-in-class device in the Presto Tablet. Presto’s founding focus on solving problems for its target customers has helped make the company a leader in the restaurant technology industry.