Cake restaurant payment app launches crowdfunding drive

The app, which allows users to share and pay bar and restaurant bills, has raised over £350,000 since its funding drive began on Tuesday (26 May).

Cake is live in more than 20 London venues, including Comptoir Libanais, The Rum Kitchen in Soho, and Bart’s in South Kensington.

The brainchild of former corporate financiers Charlotte Kohlmann and Michelle Songy, the app allows users in a Cake-registered site to allocate food or drinks to friends in the group and pay or split the bill as they choose, without using a card in the venue.

Kohlmann said: "We saw a gap in the food and drink service market for a faster and easier way for friends to split and pay their restaurant bills.

“When people can pay faster, they are happier. And restaurants can serve more customers and build a reputation for fast and efficient service.”

Cake is aiming to expand to more than 100 sites across London by the end of the year, with long-term plans to reach other major UK cities. 

According to the company’s crowdcube page​, Kohlmann wants Cake to become ‘one of the key players in the global transition from card to mobile payments’.

Mobile payments are becoming increasingly important to hospitality businesses, with research indicating​ that decreasing the time customers spend waiting for the bill could boost turnover and sales by 14.1 per cent.