Consolidation in the back-end payments market continued Monday, with the announcement by restaurant/retail payments provider SpotOn that it had raised $300 million in funding, in part to allow the firm to purchase point-of-sale services provider Appetize, which has won big chunks of business in the stadium and events space recently.
The big funding round was led by Silicon Valley VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, perhaps a signal that Silicon Valley types are now taking a keener interest in the back-end software and services space surrounding big-venue concessions. Earlier this year payments processor Shift4 made its move to get bigger by acquiring stadium-app and POS provider VenueNext for $72 million.
Appetize, which started out its life as a stadium app but then pivoted to focus on back-end services, has become the choice for many teams and venues as the shift to more digital concessions operations has accelerated due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Among recent news items, Globe Life Field, the new home of the Texas Rangers, turned to Appetize for all its concessions and retail operations, one of five new MLB teams and 10 minor-league baseball teams that picked Appetize for its services this year. Appetize also added a payments-processing service to its offerings (most likely in part to challenge the Shift4/VenueNext move) and as of last week was reminding reporters that it had helped a number of NFL teams to move to completely cashless concessions operations.
According to the acquisition/funding press release, Appetize will continue to pursue bigger customers under a new name, “SpotOn Enterprise.” SpotOn, which says it is “one of the fastest-growing software and payments companies with comprehensive solutions for restaurants and retail businesses,” will pitch Appetize’s offerings to “thousands of regional entertainment centers, stadiums, colleges, and universities” in the middle market that SpotOn currently serves. The exact price paid for Appetize was not disclosed. According to the release, the transaction is expected to close “by mid-September.”
Appetize itself had raised a total of about $50 million in funding over its existence, with some cash coming directly from the NFL.
Update, 9/22: According to SpotOn, the acquisition price for Appetize was $415 million.
