Choice Raises $7.1M Series A to Expand Its AI-Powered Restaurant SaaS Platform Across Europe

Choice, the all-in-one SaaS and QR ordering platform for restaurants, has announced a $7.1M Series A funding round. The round was led by Alea Capital Partners, with participation from Reflex Capital, Smartlink, and J&T Ventures. To date, the company has raised a total of $11.6M.

Europe is home to roughly 2 million restaurants — twice as many as the United States. While the market remains highly fragmented, Choice sees this complexity as an opportunity. By scaling market-by-market and localising deeply, the company aims to become the next major European restaurant tech success story. Its long-term ambition is to become the “Shopify for restaurants,” starting in Southern and Western Europe, including Portugal, Spain, and Italy.

Founded five years ago, Choice began as a platform enabling restaurants to communicate with customers online. Since then, it has evolved into a comprehensive operating system for independent and multi-location restaurants. Today, Choice serves more than 30,000 registered restaurants, including over 7,000 paying customers across nine active markets in Central and Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, and Romania).

The company currently generates over 1.5 million orders per month — approximately €35 million in gross merchandise value (GMV). Choice has doubled year-over-year and is targeting €500 million in monthly turnover within the next three to four years.

Scaling Across Europe

With fresh capital, Choice plans to expand rapidly across Europe. The next markets include Portugal — where Alea Capital will support scaling efforts across Southern Europe — followed by Spain and Italy. France, Germany, and the Netherlands are planned for subsequent phases.

“We understand the fragmentation of the European restaurant market and the need for localisation. But we see this as a competitive advantage. We know how to scale in Europe. By combining strong local sales teams, efficient capital deployment from our CEE base, and AI-driven product innovation, we are confident we can win market by market.”

— Alex Ilyash, Founder and CEO of Choice

Co-founders Robert Novosad and Volodymyr Olyanitsky are taking top management roles in the company.

Use of Funds: AI, Product, and Local Teams

The new investment will primarily fund product development — particularly AI-integrated modules — as well as sales and marketing expansion in target countries. Choice plans to hire local sales and support teams in each new market to ensure a strong on-the-ground presence and customer success.

AI is becoming the second major engine within the platform. While AI is often described as the trend, Choice sees data as the real fuel. The company aggregates customer data across ordering, reservations, QR interactions, loyalty programmes, and marketplace integrations. By applying AI to this centralised dataset, Choice enables restaurants to automate marketing, optimise promotions, respond to reviews, and improve operational decisions.

Large restaurant groups can afford marketing managers and analysts. Independent restaurants often cannot. Choice aims to deliver advanced automation and marketing intelligence at an average price of €80 per month, without additional commission fees.

“Choice is addressing one of the most pressing challenges facing restaurants today: operating efficiently in a highly dynamic market with structurally tight margins. By giving restaurants greater control over digital ordering, additional revenue generation, and a more balanced relationship with delivery platforms, Choice helps operators protect profitability while improving the end-customer experience. For Alea Capital Partners, Choice demonstrates how technology can create tangible, measurable value for traditional sectors.”

— Rui Escaleira, Co-Founder of Alea Capital Partners

All-in-One Platform Advantage

Choice positions itself as an alternative to standalone restaurant tech solutions, which often focus on separate features such as QR payments, marketplaces, reservations, or online ordering. Unlike single-function providers, Choice offers a fully integrated platform:

• Website builder with a custom domain connection
• Commission-free takeaway and delivery ordering
• QR menus, QR payments, and QR ordering
• Reservation management integrated with Google
• Marketplace integrations (Wolt, Bolt Food, Foodora, Glovo, Uber Eats, Just Eat Takeaway)
• Loyalty programmes across all channels
• POS/EPOS integrations without requiring system replacement

Everything operates from a single admin panel under a single subscription, consolidating fragmented customer data into a single system. Rather than competing directly with POS providers, Choice focuses on geographic expansion and becoming a pan-European infrastructure layer for restaurants.

Long-Term Vision

Choice’s long-term vision is to become the central sales and marketing engine for restaurants. By embedding AI deeply into its platform, the company aims to automate tasks traditionally handled by in-house marketing teams — from selecting which dishes to promote, to generating campaigns, responding to reviews, and optimising pricing strategies.

“Restaurants should focus on great food and great guest experience. Choice will handle sales, marketing, and optimisation through AI-powered automation.”

— Alex Ilyash, Founder and CEO of Choice

As Europe’s restaurant industry continues to digitise, Choice is betting that fragmentation — often seen as a barrier — can instead be the foundation for building the continent’s next major SaaS champion. Backed by a team of more than 130 people across Europe, the company is united around this vision and focused on executing it market by market.