Wix, based in Miami Beach and Israel, buys Miami restaurant app-maker
It may surprise some that Wix, the website design company, is also in the restaurant business.
But for the past six years, Wix, based in Israel but with 270 employees in Miami Beach, has been helping eateries win new customers by customizing their websites to take orders, book reservations and display menus.
With the onset of COVID-19, every restaurant in the world suddenly needed to get online and in diners’ phones ASAP.
Which is why Wix announced this week it was purchasing another Miami-Dade startup, SpeedETab, that has made online and mobile ordering its specialty. Terms were not disclosed.
“COVID has produced an acceleration of six or seven years of adoption of restaurants to online ordering in the span of one year,” said Ronny Elkayam, senior vice president for strategic products at Wix, in an interview with the Miami Herald. “The whole industry has experienced this acceleration, which is why it has been so important at Wix to make sure we are strong in this area. SpeedETab helps us get there.”
SpeedETab was founded by two friends, Adam Garfield and Ed Gilmore, initially as a way to order drinks from your phone at the bar. Since its creation in 2013, SpeedETab has evolved into a one-stop shop for food establishments looking to create an entire digital ecosystem that allows for maximum customer engagement. Major clients include Barnes and Noble, Panther Coffee and Coyo Taco.
One might ask why restaurants need to worry about any of this in the age of online ordering mega-apps. Garfield says these are best treated like Priceline or Kayak for airlines: websites that can channel bookings but which cannot replace the airlines’ own need for direct bookings.
“Restaurants still have to have their own direct channels, their own app, their own online ordering,” Garfield said.
The acquisition is the latest so-called “exit” for South Florida-based startups. Last month, telehealth group MDLive was acquired by Cigna for an undisclosed sum, while education technology company Nearpod was acquired by an ed-tech conglomerate in a $650 million transaction.
Garfield says SpeedETab is likewise looking to dominate the restaurant app design sector. He and Gilmore plan to become Wix executives, and the rest of the dozen-strong SpeedETab team will join as employees.
“We believe that to succeed and have an impact, you have to create a monster in this industry,” Garfield said of the decision to sell. “This really creates a powerful product and service.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2021 at 2:49 PM.
