Odeko Closes $12M Series A; Merges With Cloosiv To Form New Mobile-Ordering App

Buoyed by a $12 million Series A funding, Odeko and Cloosiv merged Tuesday to form a connected supply and demand management platform for cafes and coffee shops.

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The series was led by GGV Capital, with participation from First Round, Primary Venture Partners, Two Sigma Ventures, BoxGroup and Addition Ventures.

New York-based Odeko, an inventory management system for cafes founded in 2019, previously secured $14 million seed financing. New Jersey-based Cloosiv, an order-ahead app for coffee shops, cafes and bakeries, was started in 2017, and raised $2.1 million in seed funding, according to Crunchbase data.

“This economy has meant devastation for coffee shops,” Dane Atkinson, Odeko CEO, told Crunchbase News. “We had previously met Cloosiv, and when COVID-19 hit we thought, here is a partner we like, and in this storm, it’s better to have more boats together so we can weather the storm.”

As the new Odeko boasting 33 employees, the company is launching a combined consumer mobile ordering and supply chain platform in September as the first step in becoming a connected supply and demand platform for small businesses. Cloosiv founders James Burkhardt and Tim Griffin will continue with the new company, Atkinson said.

The company’s vision is to help cafes and coffee shops expand their customer base, drive top-line revenue to be more competitive, and mitigate hardships due to the pandemic, Atkinson said. The platform enables clients to support their process from the farm to the baker to the barista to the mobile ordering app.

Odeko also aims to be a stable entity during this challenging ecosystem, helping small businesses that don’t have the funds to hire developers or pay fees to food delivery companies.

Along with launching the new app next month, the company will expand within the Northeast, in the New York area and Philadelphia. It will also develop further app features, such as sharing the story of the farm from which a business buys its items, and for customers to see how their purchase is making a difference in the community.

“This will be a more integrated model, so cafes and coffee shops won’t need to charge 10 [percent] or 30 percent on transactions because the customer experience will be bigger,” he added. “Today, we have data, so you can tell you what is on the shelf right now, as well as who made the croissant that day and where the milk comes from. We think this will make it a Starbucks alternative for customers.”

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias