Recently, the Web3 restaurant loyalty application Blackbird announced that it has successfully completed a $24 million Series A financing round, led by a16z Crypto, with participation from QED, Union Square Ventures, Shine, Variant, and several restaurant groups. This round of financing brings Blackbird's total financing to $35 million, and the company plans to use the funds to expand its business. Blackbird focuses on establishing direct connections between restaurants and guests through loyalty and membership services. In addition to collecting customers' dining preferences, it also uses cryptocurrency to reward sign-ins. It is reported that in October last year, Blackbird completed an $11 million seed round of financing, which was led by Union Square Ventures, Shine Capital, and Multicoin Capital, and companies such as Variant, Circle Ventures, and IAC also participated in the investment.

This article was first published after Blackbird completed its $11 million seed round of financing.

News content: We have been actively exploring the potential of the Web3 field. Although Web3's decentralized finance and digital art applications are very exciting, in real life, most people still have limited knowledge of Web3 and are unclear about how Web3 can be integrated into their daily lives.

However, we believe that the vitality and cohesion of the Web3 community is one of the areas with the greatest potential. Therefore, we can focus the application of Web3 on building cognitive relationships, especially in terms of integration with real life. In our real life, "points" have become an important consideration for consumers when choosing to pay with credit cards. Web3's approach is expected to make "points" more fluid, more interoperable, and more valuable to consumers.

Today, we are going to introduce you to a Web3 application, Blackbird, which is a payment, loyalty and membership platform designed for restaurants. Its goal is to solve a problem that has always been of great concern and even difficult in the restaurant industry: how to strengthen the connection between restaurants and customers. Because stronger and more personalized relationships usually lead to higher loyalty, and loyalty will translate into higher customer lifetime value, that is, it can bring more good reviews and repeat customers.

Although Blackbird has not disclosed much information yet, it plans to launch a trial version in 2023. This platform was created by Ben Leventhal, a well-known figure in the catering industry. Ben Leventhal enjoys a high reputation in the international catering field. His experience and vision will inject strong impetus into Blackbird.

For the past 20 years, Ben Leventhal has been committed to building the future of technology in the restaurant industry. He is the co-founder and former CEO of Resy, an online restaurant reservation service company in the United States. Under his leadership, Resy was twice named one of the "Most Innovative Companies" by Fast Company. In addition, he is the co-founder of Eater.com, a restaurant network brand under Vox Media that provides comprehensive restaurant information and guides.

“Our focus is on rewarding users for dining frequency, restaurant spend and everything related to loyalty,” Leventhal said of Blackbird. “Ultimately, we believe these initiatives will increase the lifetime value of individual consumers and Blackbird will improve the entire restaurant business.”

Although Blackbird’s technology stack has yet to be finalized, Leventhal predicts that some level of abstraction of Web3 components will be needed in order to appeal to mainstream consumers.

He added: “For the local audience of the Web3 community, we hope their crypto enthusiasm can lead them to come try purpose-built restaurants like Blackbird.”

Web3 platforms similar to Blackbird include Devour, which aims to help restaurants bring their businesses into Web3, create their own blockchain token DevourPAY, and launch a series of membership NFTs to enhance connections with loyal customers. This way of connecting restaurants with customers through membership and loyalty programs is expected to promote more transactions.

in conclusion

In summary, Blackbird represents an important attempt by the restaurant industry to enter Web3, using blockchain technology to attract and reward customers, accept cryptocurrency payments, and cooperate with the vibrant Web3 community. Through the points system of the crypto industry such as NFT and tokens, restaurants can connect more closely with customers and drive more transactions. This also marks that Web3 technology is constantly penetrating into various fields of real life, bringing new possibilities to traditional industries.