Website www.olo.com Founded June 2005 | Founder Noah Glass Type of business Private | |
 | ||
Industry Internet, Mobile, Restaurants Key people Noah Glass, Founder & Chief Executive Officer Headquarters New York City, New York, United States Profiles | ||
Olo is a mobile and online food ordering platform that allows customers to order food from online menus and prepay in advance from their mobile or desktop device. The company is based in New York City.
Contents
Olo was founded as GoMobo in 2005 by entrepreneur Noah Glass and renamed Olo in 2010 (an acronym for "online ordering"). Their registered trademark slogan is "Skip the Line ®". Olo works with chain restaurants across the United States; according to a 2015 report in Fortune Magazine, the company had served approximately 10 million customers. The company reports reaching 40 million users in 2017.
Leadership
Noah Glass (not to be confused with Noah Glass (Twitter)) holds a B.A. in political science from Yale University. He left Harvard Business School in 2005 to found GoMobo.com, which was renamed Olo in 2010. Prior to founding GoMobo/Olo, Glass worked for Endeavor Global, Inc. and National Retail Federation.
Restaurateur Danny Meyer joined Olo's Board of Directors in 2015.
Clients
Olo services multi-unit restaurants with 40 or more locations. The company works with approximately 150 brands, including Applebee's, b.good, Baskin-Robbins, BURGERFi, Capriotti’s, Carlo’s Bakery, Cheba Hut, Chili's, Chipotle, Cold Stone Creamery, Costa Vida, Cousins Subs, Dickey’s Barbecue, Down to Earth Organic & Natural, Famous Dave's, Field's Good Chicken, Five Guys Burgers & Fries, GFG (Marble Slab/Maggie Moo’s), Giant Eagle, Izzo's Illegal Burrito, Jamba Juice, Kneaders Bakery & Cafe, McAlister's Deli, My Ceviche, Noodles & Company, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Olga’s Kitchen, Port of Subs, Pret a Manger, Real Mex (Chevy’s Fresh Mex/El Torito), Shake Shack, sweetgreen, Taylor Gourmet, Tin Drum Asiacafe, The Counter Burger, Veggie Grill, Wayback Burgers, Which Wich, and Wingstop. Olo's mobile ordering app for Five Guys Burgers & Fries was rated positively among major chain restaurant apps by Applause, a software testing company.
Usage
As of 2017, Olo reports having served 40 million users. According to an October 2013 Forbes.com article, clients of Olo have reported having average ticket sizes increase by 25 percent. Some clients have experienced up to a 73 percent increase in ticket size.
Technology
Olo works with restaurants to create mobile applications for the Android, Blackberry, and iPhone, as well as mobile-optimized ordering websites. Their online food ordering products are white labeled and integrate with restaurant point of sale systems.
Olo was the first United States online ordering company to release text message ordering capabilities.
In 2015, Olo released Dispatch, a white-labeled product that matches customers with available delivery couriers.
Security
Olo systems are PCI Level 1 compliant, the highest level of compliance by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DDS). Systems are reviewed annually by the PCI Committee to validate cardholder data security.
Applications
Olo runs on an open framework, enabling developers to build applications on top of its secure and integrated framework. Olo facilitates connections between the restaurant side and to consumer-facing interfaces which can range from standard mobile applications to chatbots.
Olo’s software connects to restaurant call center systems to increase efficiency for catering and takeout orders placed by phone.
Tech Stack
The Olo platform is largely built on Microsoft’s .NET framework, alongside a variety of open-source software solutions. IIS is used to serve web requests, while data is primarily stored in MS SQL Server with Redis serving as a secondary inter-process cache and pub/sub bus.
Investors and Funding
Olo has raised USD $63.25 million in total funding from Founder Collective, RRE Ventures, Core Capital, PayPal, Staley Capital, the Raine Group, and Danny Meyer.