Austin Food & Tech Startups
Tech companies in Austin, the ultimate spot for innovation in the food & hospitality field
The Choco team headed to Austin, Texas. In the past weeks, we have supported local bars, restaurants, and food trucks with our free order management app and had the chance to learn more about the flourishing scene of startups and tech companies in Austin.
Austin is the ultimate destination for up-and-coming startups working in the hospitality, and consumer packaged goods sector, often with a focus on sustainability.
Let's have a look at what the city is all about. Here are some of the tech companies in Austin you should keep an eye on during 2021.
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Gardenio
Gardenio is the 2.0 garden club helping you grow organic and sustainable herbs and greens with an app and through community support. In case your restaurant’s patio or back of house courtyard needed an extra hint of greens, this platform might be right up your alley.
«The idea is it's weirdly difficult to start growing food for something we've done for 20,000 years. You can walk in and support a Home Depot or something and try to figure it out yourself, or we can do the hard work, send you what you need, and help you make the best decisions along the way. You can just focus on tending to and eating those cool varieties of sage, basil, and mint you can't find anywhere else.» Roman Gonzalez, Founder & CEO of Gardenio.
Their team provides you with all the necessary equipment (box with living plants, pots, soil, and a few smart extra tools) to grow your own food. And that’s not it: the box is customized according to your outdoor space and season.
Their app helps you manage plants and connect with expert gardeners in your area for support to receive the best tips on growing food by yourself...well, not really by yourself, as their team suggests! Any chef out there willing to start a new adventure into gardening?
TabbedOut
TabbedOut is the POS system solution designed to remove staff and guest touch-points and provide a safe and profitable guest experience through commission-free phone-to-table mobile ordering and Touchless PaymentTM.
This service is thought for high-volume restaurants, bars, patios, and beer gardens. We all know how tedious it is for front-of-house workers to manage these kinds of operations during busy services, and this is right when TabbedOut comes into action.
Thanks to their system, restaurants can display digital menus, manage table orders, access data and marketing reports, and deliver special offers to their customers' smartphones.
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Vinder
Vinder is the new Etsy for hyper-local food proposing a farmer-market-like digital shop experience with more than 100 local producers in Austin. With this platform, people can browse and shop all types of items like baked goods, fresh produce, meats, or pantries - anything you want to satisfy your craves and bring your menu to the next level with fresh and local products.
Their single vendor checkout system allows you to know that your money is going directly to your selected purveyors. Launched on foot and bicycle by Sam Lillie, Vinder's mission is to give the food system back to the people by connecting the community to local goods.
Food & Agtech
When it comes to keeping an eye on the latest food & agricultural tech innovations and newborn startups in Austin, Austin Technology Incubator (ATI) is the program to follow.
ATI is a deep tech incubator that has a vertical focusing on Food & Agtech, in which different companies working towards the future of the industry gain access to expertise, resources, and opportunities to mature and scale their ventures.
Choco
Choco supports the Austin food and restaurant scene by providing free order management technology. We help restaurants and suppliers manage their ordering and strive for a more efficient and digitized food system.
The Choco app makes chefs' and restaurant managers' workload less tedious at the end of the day by making them save time. Thanks to Choco, chefs can say goodbye to ordering mistakes and improve their communication with suppliers by keeping everything on one platform.