Malou – an all-in-one solution that helps restaurants increase their sales by attracting, retaining, and building customer loyalty – recently announced it has successfully raised over $10 million in funding. This round of funding was led by prominent investors, including the SaaS B2B experts henQ, Bleu Capital, Bertrand Jelensperger (founder of The Fork), Jim Texier (former CPO of Lightspeed), and several restaurant clients.
Since being founded in January 2021, Malou has been dedicated to providing tailored digital marketing solutions designed exclusively for the restaurant sector, integrating a restaurant’s Google page, social media profiles, and listing and delivery platforms all into one centralized hub. Malou then utilizes AI and automation to analyze and generate responses to customer reviews efficiently, generate social media posts, and maintain consistent information – all of which enhance the restaurants’ online presence, SEO, visibility, and engagement.
During a time when 9 out of 10 customers choose restaurants online, Malou emerged as an essential tool for restaurateurs. And the platform’s comprehensive approach manages and improves the entire relationship between restaurants and their customers, from discovery and conversion to customer satisfaction monitoring and loyalty building.
With more than 2,000 restaurants on board across 12 countries, including independents, food chains, top chefs, and high-profile restaurant groups, Malou has demonstrated its universal appeal and effectiveness. Among their well-known clients are Jean-George Group’s Tin Building marketplace in New York City, Bagatelle Group, and Krispy Kreme. And funding an international expansion with new talents and an even better solution for restaurants
With the recent funding round of funding secured, Malou plans to accelerate growth in France, enhance product functionality, and expand internationally in France, Europe, the Middle East, and the U.S., focusing on New York City and Paris, where co-founder and CEO Louiza Hacene divides her time.
Malou is led by a dynamic and international trio of co-founders: CEO Louiza Hacene, a Franco-Algerian HEC graduate, along with her two partners, a Tunisian engineer and CentraleSupélec graduate Waad Toumi (CPO), and Télécom Paris educated developer, Victor Sage (CTO). Between them, they comprise the entrepreneurial vision, commercial skills and, above all, technical expertise needed to pivot Malou from a restaurant digital marketing agency to the innovative SaaS model tech platform that it is today.
KEY QUOTES:
“Malou’s team has been able to translate their deep understanding of marketing for restaurants into a ‘hyper-verticalized’ solution which optimizes all aspects of a restaurant’s online presence automatically. This leads to more visitors without forcing owners to become marketing experts. The team has further impressed us with their ability to get this solution into the hands of many restaurants, a notoriously hard target group to sell to.”
— Mick Mackaay, Partner at lead investor henQ
“The restaurant industry is one where success so heavily relies on building and maintaining your reputation, especially through your online presence. Malou is dedicated to providing the tools to help restaurants connect with potential customers and maintain their relationships with their existing customers, and this new funding will allow us to further improve our product, expand our team, and increase our market reach, especially in the United States.”
— CEO Louiza Hacene
