Business

haddock, a Spanish management platform for restaurants, arrives in Latin America

The countries where it is starting operations are Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Colombia, and soon Peru and Brazil. The startup already has more than 300 clients in Europe, including Spain and Portugal.

The co-founders of haddock: Pol Roseel, Carlos Marchal and Arnau Navarro. Photo: Courtesy.

LABS

14.Apr.2022 16:46 BRT
UPDATED 20:53 BRT

Leer en español

haddock, a SaaS specialized in cost control and management for the restaurant sector, began this year participating in the Y Combinator acceleration program and raising a €1 million funding round. For the next few months, the plan is to enter the Latin American market.

To support the restaurant sector, haddock has developed a pioneering application. Through photos, it automatically extracts information from invoices and receipts to offer users updated income, cost and expense data that helps them make decisions based on real-time data.

With more than 300 clients who already use the expense control platform in Spain and Portugal, haddock seeks to start operations in the Latin American market: Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador, where it already has its first clients, in addition to Costa Rica, Chile and soon Peru and Brazil.

“Since the first day, we had many restaurants interested in trying the platform because they understand that digitization is a real fact and need tools to solve their pains directly. In addition, we are studying the [LatAm] market, and we understand that all restaurateurs need a solution that improves cost control in their businesses. That is why we are working to, in the coming months, open new countries and revolutionize cost management in all possible restaurants,” explains the co-founder and CEO of haddock, Arnau Navarro, to LABS.

Late last year, haddock closed a €1 million investment round led by Y Combinator and backed by major restaurant investors, including Zone2Boost, JME, LevelsUp, Extension Fund, and BAs. Lourdes Álvarez de Toledo, a partner at JME Venture Capital, stated in a notice to the press that “with the digitization of the hotel sector and the food delivery boom, we believe that haddock has appeared at the perfect time to simplify, centralize and digitize the sector’s management of expenses and income.”

How does the haddock app work?

The Barcelona-based startup, founded by Arnau Navarro (CEO), Pol Rosell (COO), and Carlos Marchal (CTO), managed to quickly scale its product with the help of Lanzadera, the accelerator run by Juan Roig, president of Mercadona (one of the leading physical and online supermarket companies in Spain). Through an algorithm and OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology per line item, haddock has automated document reconciliation, that is, the task of detecting inconsistencies between receipts and invoices, thus improving the bargaining power of restaurants against their suppliers.

One of the great benefits that restaurateurs can have with haddock is that it allows them to analyze price variations and have the purchase history automatically and the total amounts of purchases of goods and supplies – this last feature helps to better manage finances and inventories by knowing updated information in real time thanks to OCR technology and the breakdown of line items.

“Today, we offer a free trial because we understand the current problems, and we want users to recognize the value of haddock for their restaurant. Many restaurateurs speak of haddock as the platform that has allowed them to save time and forget about manual and insecure procedures that do not allow daily peace of mind. Users can upgrade their plan at any time and access personalized support that, despite the platform’s intuitiveness, is available to answer any questions,” says Navarro about the fact that the startup does not charge restaurants for its service at the beginning.

After testing the platform, restaurants can pay for the service through monthly or yearly subscriptions, choosing between three plans. “We understand that each restaurant has a different volume of documents as well as a team with specific needs. That is why we have three different plans, one focused on the digitization of documents and two that allow restaurateurs to know the price variations of their products and count the cost of each dish on their menu,” says Navarro.
The CEO preferred not to disclose specific figures on revenue or revenue and user goals for 2022;