a16z Leading investment of $24 million in Blackbird when restaurants meet Web3

a16z invests $24 million in Blackbird for Web3 restaurant integration

Note: On October 4, 2023, a16z announced a $24 million Series A funding round for Blackbird, a web3 loyalty application for restaurants, led by a16z. Arianna Simpson, a partner at a16z, explained her investment logic in a post. Translated by LianGuai0xxz.

One of the great joys of living in New York City is never being more than a few minutes away from delicious food.

Restaurants have long provided customers with great food, social spaces, and entertainment. Despite the value they have created for diners, cities, and society, the restaurant industry often lacks corresponding profit margins.

We have seen blockchain enable direct connections between creators and fans in the music and art fields, allowing creators to identify, interact with, and reward their most loyal and passionate fans.

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What if restaurants could do the same? What does this mean for the experiences they can create for customers?

Building products for restaurants is tricky – restaurant ownership is typically decentralized, there are rarely economies of scale, and technology itself is seldom a selling point. But sometimes we are fortunate to come across a thoughtful founder who has operated very wisely in their own domain and now has the support of new technology, making investment decisions easier.

Blackbird, led by CEO and founder Ben Leventhal, is committed to providing personalized dining experiences through web3 to reward consumers and make them happy.

In the restaurant space, Ben is the epitome of a founder-market fit. The era of online restaurant reservations seemed incredible, let alone online restaurant reviews – and for all this, we have people like Ben to thank. Ben is the co-founder and CEO of Resy, a platform that manages reservations for some of the world’s most popular restaurants, which he sold to American Express in 2019. Long before that, Ben co-founded Eater in 2005, an online guide to food and nightlife destinations in the United States.

Over lunch, as we got to know each other, I told Ben that Blackbird felt like the culmination of his career. His eyes lit up. “Yes,” he said, “that’s exactly it. I’ve been working towards this my whole life.”

Ben loves restaurants. And restaurants love him.

Blackbird has only been live for a few months, and we have already seen the restaurant community adopt and shape this platform. Restaurants are using Blackbird to reward customers, from free drinks and snacks to off-menu items, to private meals prepared by chefs at home, and even allowing users to pre-order memberships for newly opened restaurants.

This is a world full of endless delicious possibilities. That’s why we are so excited to announce today that we will lead the $24 million Series A financing round for Blackbird, providing the fuel for this future.

To discover all the restaurants in the Blackbird network and see the upcoming restaurant list, please visit Blackbird.xyz and check out Where to Blackbird.

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