The Startup Choice raises $7.1 million in funding and develops an AI platform for restaurant digitization in Romania

Restaurant technology Startup Choice has secured $7.1 million in new funding and is accelerating its expansion across Central and Eastern Europe, including Romania, where it entered the market in 2025. Since its local launch, Choice has already attracted its first paying restaurants, confirming interest in its all-in-one digital platform dedicated to the HoReCa industry.

The funding round was led by Portuguese venture capital fund Alea Capital, with participation from Polish fund Smartlink and existing investors Reflex Capital and J&T Ventures from the Czech Republic. With this investment, the company’s total funding raised reaches $11.6 million.

The Startup Choice is developing a B2B SaaS platform that allows restaurants to manage their digital presence, online orders, deliveries, and customer relations in one place. The company currently works with over 30,000 registered restaurants, of which more than 7,000 are paying customers, in nine European markets.

Romania is one of Startup Choice’s newest markets, but the company sees significant potential for the development of the restaurant and delivery services sectors. After entering the market in 2025 and attracting its first paying restaurants, the company plans to expand its local operations in 2026 by developing an operational hub in Bucharest with dedicated sales, onboarding, partnership, and customer support teams.

“Romania is an extremely dynamic market for the restaurant and delivery industry. We are seeing an increasing openness to digitalization, and the interest received from our first customers confirms that local restaurants are looking for solutions that give them more control over sales and customer relations,” says Alex Ilyash, Founder and CEO of Startup Choice.

The Startup Choice strategy aims to reduce restaurants’ dependence on high-commission delivery marketplaces while maintaining access to the demand generated by these platforms. The platform integrates with international delivery services such as Wolt, Glovo, and Bolt, allowing restaurants to manage orders from a single interface.

At the same time, restaurants can launch their own website with a commission-free online ordering system, retaining control over customer data and profit margins in exchange for a predictable monthly subscription fee.

“Restaurants operate in an extremely competitive environment, with very low margins and rising costs. The Startup Choice platform provides them with the digital tools they need to increase sales and maintain control over customer relationships,” says Robert Novosad, Co-Founder and Head of Operations at Startup Choice.

In addition to online orders and deliveries, the company estimates that Romanian restaurants will increasingly adopt QR ordering and digital payment solutions, a trend already present in many European markets. By scanning a QR code placed on the table, customers can access the digital menu, place orders, or pay directly from their phone.

“We are seeing growing interest from restaurants in Romania in digital tools that simplify operations and improve the customer experience. The Choice platform brings together features such as online ordering, reservations, loyalty programs, and marketing tools in one place,” says Alexandru Punga, Head of Sales at Startup Choice Romania.

The Startup Choice platform serves as a complete operating system for restaurants, including a website with online ordering, reservations, QR menus and order tracking, digital payments, CRM and loyalty programs, and integrations with delivery platforms and POS systems. All these tools are managed from a single administrative panel.

A significant portion of the new funding will be directed toward developing artificial intelligence-based modules to automate marketing campaigns, generate personalized promotions, and help restaurants optimize sales using data from customer interactions.

The company currently has a team of over 130 specialists in Europe and aims to become one of the leading technology providers for restaurants in the region, continuing to invest in expanding its local teams and developing its platform.

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About Startup Choice
The Startup Choice is a technology company that develops a B2B SaaS platform for digitizing restaurant operations. The solution enables HoReCa operators to manage online orders, deliveries, reservations, loyalty programs, and customer relations in a single place. The platform also integrates delivery services and POS systems, providing restaurants with a complete infrastructure for sales, marketing, and customer data management. The Startup Choice aims to become the sales and marketing engine for restaurants in Europe by leveraging data and artificial intelligence.