Tock, the Super Duper Fancy restaurant reservation platform, has been purchased by Squarespace

Tock was based in Chicago after relocating operations to help restaurants take orders during a pandemic that made indoor dining risky was acquired by Squarespace to the $ 400 million in cash and in stock, according to a press release. Tock, Co-founded in 2014 Nick Kokonas of the Alinea Group became the reservation portal for Michelin-starred restaurants such as French Laundry in Yountville, California, and Eleven Madison Park in New York.

Kokonas and the company built the website to reduce customer no-shows: when Tock hit the market, customers had to prepay for their meals – a controversial strategy that restaurant owners say was better about keeping seats full .

OpenTable was Tock’s main competitor, and Kokonas kept shooting at the platform, which sold for $ 2.6 billion in 2014 to the Priceline Group. He has called OpenTable a dinosaurand said the interface was out of date and did not allow flexibility; For example, restaurants couldn’t intuitively add special events or popups. Another rival, Resy, was sold in 2019 to American Express.

The city of Chicago praised Tock last year for helping restaurants – especially those that Never have I ever sold take away food – Sale of delivery and delivery orders. With a commission of 3 percent, it was cheaper for restaurants than the 15 to 30 percent fees that other third parties like DoorDash and Grubhub charge their customers. Tock has expanded its presence to include more than just elite restaurants and offer traditional reservations, not just those that are prepaid. Museums, pizzerias and pubs are among the new customers picked up in 2020.

Based in New York, Squarespace is known for building websites. In January officials said it had filed for an IPO in confidence, according to Bloomberg. The Tock team remains in Chicago and Kokonas remains its CEO. Kokonas declined to comment when he arrived on Wednesday afternoon. A Squarespace press release stated that there will be no changes to the service for customers using Tock, but that Squarespace customers will see changes „to access Tock’s technology in the coming months.”

According to a press release, Tock has around 7,000 hospitality customers nationwide and sales of more than $ 10 billion in 200 cities.

Disclosure: Resys Ben Leventhal was a co-founder of Eater but is no longer involved in its business.

• Squarespace to acquire tech startup Tock for more than $ 400 million [Yahoo]
• Squarespace says it was filed in confidence to go public in the US [Bloomberg]