By RTN Staff – 9.22.2022
Presto Automation, which describes itself as “a leading provider of enterprise-grade touch, vision and voice restaurant technology and currently one of the largest providers of workforce automation technology to the hospitality industry, has completed its previously announced business combination with Ventoux CCM Acquisition Corp. , a public special purpose acquisition company. As discussed here, this combination has been going on for nearly a year.
Presto was founded at MIT in 2008 and is headquartered in Silicon Valley, California. Clients include many of the top 20 restaurant chains in the United States. The company provides a platform of voice, vision and touch solutions designed to increase employee productivity and improve customer experience.
Presto Automation processes over $4 billion in transactions annually in nearly 280,000 deployments and aims to help restaurants achieve over 250% higher labor productivity and 30% larger check sizes by leveraging its complete technology suite.
The company is known for its kiosks and tablets where guests can order and pay directly at the table, and uses voice recognition so customers can order by talking to the device in drive-throughs and other settings. It also uses computer vision and analytics to help restaurants optimize operations.
With the launch of several new solutions and the signing of important national agreements, Presto has become one of the largest restaurant technology providers especially in the past few years.This 
The company has rapidly expanded its customer base thanks to new solutions such as contactless dining and computer vision technology. It reportedly has over 100 million active monthly users and 300,000 systems on three continents. Big-name clients include McDonald’s, Applebee’s restaurants and Brinker International.
Presto’s recent growth has been driven by the introduction of several new technologies for pass-through performance optimization, contactless ordering/payment, and employee support. Its strategic partnerships with industry leaders such as PayPal, Google, and Fiserv provide access to global markets, helping companies scale rapidly.
Last September, Presto launched its next-generation platform, Presto Flex. multifunction tablet,
Custom designed for the hospitality industry, it can be used in a variety of restaurant dining and drive-thru applications, including pay-to-table, employee handheld devices, kiosks, and drive-thru line breakers. The new platform also integrates with Presto’s contactless QR code ordering and payment solutions, giving restaurants full front-of-house flexibility.
Last August, the company launched Presto Voice to automate speech recognition in restaurants. The product can be deployed in a variety of restaurant environments, including drive-thru, waiting in line, kiosks, pay-to-table systems, and handheld servers to simplify the guest experience while increasing the guest-to-staff ratio. According to the company, the Presto Voice solution is over 95 percent accurate and includes a manual backup option for rare edge cases.
“This is an incredibly exciting time for Presto as we complete our business merger with Ventoux and become a public company,” said Presto founder and CEO Raj Suri. In the labor market, our platform couldn’t be more appropriate, and with the capital raised by this transaction, I believe we are well-positioned to capitalize on the trend of labor automation. The white space for our product is growing every day and we look forward to working with our customers to address some industries The most difficult challenge.”
The combined company will reportedly operate as Presto Automation Inc. Its common stock and warrants are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq stock market under the symbols “PRST” and “PRSTW,” respectively. Cash proceeds from the business combination, including strategic investments from Cleveland Avenue, LLC and others, included approximately $120 million to fund the expansion and product development of the Presto platform.