Blackbird gobbles up $50M for its blockchain-based payment-loyalty app for restaurants

A founder who has carved out a name for himself building products to help restaurants connect better with would-be diners has raised $50 million for his latest startup: a new take on the idea of customer loyalty. Blackbird Labs has built a payments-meets-loyalty-meets-blockchain platform for restaurants to grow repeat business while reducing some of the friction around transactions. Now, with with some 1,000 restaurants signed up, CEO Ben Leventhal said Blackbird plans to use the money to launch its newest product, a cross-restaurant “points” service it’s calling Blackbird Club, as well as to expand into more markets outside of New York (its Homebase), San Francisco and Charleston, South Carolina. (Charleston, you ask? “Charleston punches above its class,” Leventhal said in an interview. “It’s a great restaurant city for its size.” It also appears to the be Blackbird’s equivalent of New Zealand for Meta, with Leventhal calling it “a good test market for us.”) Spark Capital, a new ba ... Read full article.