When the global pandemic confined people to their homes, small coffee shops that relied on foot traffic were forced to get back on their feet. At this time, many coffee shop owners turned to technology to assist with online ordering and payment.
Start-ups were also keen to help these companies continue operating safely, and venture capital firms followed suit. For example, Joe Coffee raised money to help coffee shops with mobile ordering, and Odeko and his Cloosiv merged to integrate inventory and mobile ordering apps. As an integrated entity, Odeco subsequently raised tens of millions of dollars in venture-backed financing.
When Jack Pawlik and Avery Durrant founded New York-based coffee shop software company Dripos in 2019, they had no idea they would soon be joining the group. Their initial idea was to help local coffee shops build mobile ordering apps similar to what Starbucks offers.
“The more I interacted with business owners and store owners, the more I realized there was a much bigger problem going on,” Pawlik exclusively told TechCrunch. “We almost added to that problem by being such a platform.”
Dripos co-founders and co-CEOs Avery Durrant and Jack Pawlik;Image credit: Doripos
Through conversations with store owners, Pawlik and Durant learned that many stores were using simple point-of-sale systems like Square. It wasn't necessarily bad, but “it just wasn't the right fit for their workflow,” Pawlik said. After that, many shops adopted 5 to 10 other software to fill the gaps.
Pawlik and Durrant decided to develop a tool that would replace Square, Toast, and eight other software with one comprehensive tool.
Dripos integrates your POS. Mobile payment. Employee management and payroll. Loyalty and marketing automation. It also includes administrative functions such as accounting and banking.
Manny Caral, owner and operator of Revolucion Coffee + Juice, which has five locations in Texas, recently switched to Dripos, and Revolucion is one of five different companies he uses, including Toast and Square. said in a statement.
“Through Doripos, we can achieve this and more,” Kalal said. “This product has streamlined our daily tasks and given us back time to focus more on the customer experience.”
Dripos' approach has been embraced by other customers as well. Last year was his first full year with the company introducing new tools. He now has locations in coffee shops in 46 states. The number of locations relying on Dripos has increased by 400%, and the company processes hundreds of millions of dollars in payments annually.
Pawlik and Durrant have secured $11 million in Series A funding as the company now wants to invest in areas such as technology development and market launch. Early-stage venture capital Base10 Partners, known for investments in Plaid, Instacart, and Figma, led the round, led by Y Combinator managing partner Michael Siebel, Punchh founder Shyam Rao, and Bench founder Ian. A group of angel investors, including Crosby, participated. The company raised a total of $17.3 million.
As part of the investment, Base10 principal Caroline Broder, who led the Series A, will join Dripos' board of directors.
“We have complete confidence in this business model,” Broder told TechCrunch. “At the beginning of our relationship, it was clear that Jack and Avery had a vision to build a complete suite. They wanted to introduce and replace software and more early in the company's lifecycle. They've built a ton of products so they can understand what business owners want, what they need, and what they're not getting. They have created something specifically made for them. Customer empathy is a rare quality.”