Crave Hospitality To License Its Virtual Restaurant Technology To Food Service Enterprises

Crave Hospitality Group, a Boise, Idaho based virtual restaurant collective, will begin licensing its proprietary tech stack to restaurants, ghost kitchens, and food halls outside of its own operations, the group announced on July 15. The company is targeting national and regional restaurant groups that could use its Crave Technology platform to remotely operate brands and franchises from a central location, as well as offer mobile and online ordering, coordinate delivery fleets, and manage marketing campaigns. The fully-integrated system has been developed by founders Devin Wade, a tech entrepreneur, restaurant veteran Chef Scott Howard, and Idaho restauranteur Barry Werner, who launched their first kitchen collective last November.

The coronavirus pandemic forced food service enterprises to rethink and overhaul their operations to adapt to a delivery-focused business model, with many turning to a new concept called a “ghost kitchen” — commercial kitchens without front-of-house operations shared by multiple restaurants or brands. Crave was developed to help expand independent operations, and its current Boise collective boasts 18 restaurant concepts that can be accessed from one interface, including mixing and matching cuisines. In January, the company secured over $7 million in seed funding, led by StageDotO and including several other investors.