Profile

The original idea for Toast came from a group of friends who were frustrated with how long it can take to pay for one’s check at a restaurant or bar. To solve this problem, the company founders—Steve Fredette, Aman Narang, and Jonathan Grimm—created a smartphone app that gives customers a way to start a tab at the restaurant and link a credit card. Launched in 2012, Toast now allows for mobile payments, customer loyalty programs, promotions, and social aspects, which are all integrated with restaurants’ existing POS systems. Today, the cloud-based restaurant management platform is used in approximately 62,000 restaurants, from small cafes to nationwide enterprises.

Always looking ahead, Toast’s most recent updates include server-started ordering and a customizable digital menu by service area. In September 2021, after several rounds of funding and a nearly $5 billion valuation, the company went public. At the time, its market capitalization was roughly $20 billion, making it one of 2021’s largest U.S. IPOs. Adding to this success, in 2022 Toast opened a new office in Dublin, Ireland and announced that it had acquired Sling, a communication and management solution.