The Awkward Wait That Sparked a Fintech Movement
The worst part of dining out isn’t the wait for the table — it’s the wait for the check, that awkward limbo between satisfaction and frustration.
For decades, that final ten-minute purgatory at the end of a meal has frustrated guests and slowed servers. Now, a restaurateur-founded startup called sunday wants to make that pain point disappear — and investors are buying in.
The Atlanta-based payment platform, created by hospitality veterans who lived the inefficiency firsthand, has raised a $21 million Series B led by DST Global Partners. The fresh capital will accelerate U.S. expansion and solidify sunday’s position as one of the fastest-growing hospitality fintechs worldwide.
From Table Frustration to Fintech Innovation
Founded in 2021 by Christine de Wendel (formerly COO of ManoMano) alongside Victor Lugger and Tigrane Seydoux, the restaurateurs behind Europe’s famed Big Mamma Group, sunday was born from a simple idea: paying at a restaurant shouldn’t be the worst part of the meal.
For all the talk of restaurant-tech innovation, most solutions have served operators, not guests. Sunday flips that script—designing from the diner’s perspective first, then building the technology around it.
Everything the company builds is tested first inside Big Mamma’s restaurants — a $300 million enterprise expanding to Miami this year — before rolling out globally. Guests scan a QR code, split the bill, tip, and pay in under ten seconds. For restaurants, that translates into faster table turns, higher revenue, and happier staff.
“We’re at a key inflection point,” says de Wendel, co-founder and U.S. CEO. “sunday is creating frictionless hospitality experiences that benefit both restaurants and consumers, and we’re eager to watch our technology continue to transform the U.S. hospitality industry.”
The company’s name nods to the most leisurely meal of the week — and to its ambition to make every checkout feel effortless.
Hospitality’s $80 Billion Payment Problem
Despite years of digital transformation across retail and e-commerce, restaurant payments remain stuck in the past. Diners still flag servers, wait for printed checks, and hand over credit cards — a ritual largely unchanged for decades. The result: lost time, lower tips, and missed opportunities to build guest relationships.
According to Market Intelo, the global restaurant-payments market was worth roughly $27.8 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $81.2 billion by 2033, growing at a 12.6 % CAGR. Data Intelo estimates it at $56 billion today, underscoring how large — and under-digitized — this space remains.
For an industry that generated over $1.2 trillion in U.S. sales last year, modernizing payments isn’t just about convenience — it’s about economics. Every minute shaved off a table turn can lift revenue by up to 15 percent.
Sunday’s Rapid Growth
In just four years, sunday has scaled to 3,500 restaurants across the U.S., U.K., and France, processing $4 billion in payments annually for 70 million guests.
The company reports 2.7× year-over-year growth, tripled revenue in twelve months, and is nearing profitability — a rarity among growth-stage fintechs.
Its impact is measurable:
- 12 minutes saved per table
- ~10 % increase in average tips
- 5× more Google reviews
Sunday’s client roster spans La Pecora Bianca, Boqueria, Rosa Mexicano, Gibsons Restaurant Group, Bareburger, and Lettuce Entertain You.
In the U.K., the platform powers restaurants including Gordon Ramsay Group, Dishoom, and Arcade Food Halls.
With its Series B, sunday plans expansion into Los Angeles, Austin, Dallas, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and Miami, alongside the launch of a Guest App and white-labeled solutions for multi-location groups.
The Competitive Landscape
The race to digitize restaurant payments is heating up.
Toast Inc., which went public in 2021, remains the dominant U.S. player with over 120,000 restaurants using its all-in-one POS and payments platform. The company raised $400 million in Series F funding before its IPO and now commands a multi-billion-dollar market cap.
SpotOn, another fast-growing challenger, secured $300 million Series F in 2022 at a $3.6 billion valuation and has tripled its restaurant footprint in the past two years.
A new wave of startups — Qlub (US $17 million seed), Choice QR (€1.5 million seed), and Middle Eastern players like Chatfood, Timbl, Spades, and Opaala — are all racing to simplify checkout.
Against that backdrop, sunday’s $21 million round may look modest, but it follows a $100 million Series A in 2021 and a disciplined path to profitability that many peers lack.
Its advantage: being built by restaurateurs, not pure technologists. That insider knowledge — from staffing rhythms to service culture — builds trust with operators and accelerates adoption.
How Sunday Differentiates
Where Toast and SpotOn operate mainly as back-of-house operating systems, sunday is guest-first. Its entire product philosophy centers on the diner experience — reducing friction, boosting tips, and turning payments into engagement opportunities.
Rather than replace POS systems, sunday integrates directly with them — including Toast — adding a real-time layer that drives incremental ROI.
“We’re not asking restaurants to change how they run,” de Wendel says. “We’re helping them run better.”
That philosophy resonates from independent operators to Michelin-starred venues.
Risks And Realities
Scaling any restaurant technology comes with headwinds.
Operators vary widely in size, budget, and tech fluency, making training critical.
Fragmented payment regulations and tipping norms can complicate rollout, though de Wendel notes the U.S. market’s state-to-state differences are manageable.
And in an era of rising labor costs and food inflation, restaurateurs scrutinize every vendor for immediate ROI. Execution, not concept, will determine whether sunday becomes a mainstream fixture or a premium niche tool.
From Payments To Guest Engagement
Sunday’s long-term vision stretches far beyond the transaction. The company is building loyalty, CRM, and analytics tools to help restaurants understand and re-engage diners post-meal.
By analyzing spend data and repeat visits, restaurants can tailor menus or marketing: a tourist-heavy venue might keep favorites stable, while a neighborhood spot could rotate offerings.
The forthcoming loyalty program will let diners earn and redeem points as easily as airline miles.
“Our vision is to power the entire guest journey — from the reservation to the review,” de Wendel says.
Like Uber, every sunday transaction invites a one-click review — and 85 percent of guests leave feedback, a rate unmatched by other platforms.
Like Uber, every sunday transaction invites a one-click review — and 85 percent of guests leave feedback, a rate unmatched by other platforms.
That data flywheel positions sunday not just as a payments company but as an emerging guest-engagement infrastructure for hospitality — already extending into hotels, entertainment, and travel.
As fintechs evolve beyond traditional banking, the next wave of winners won’t compete on transaction speed or software sophistication alone, but on how seamlessly they enhance human experience. The company’s thesis is simple: the future of restaurant payments belongs to platforms that make service more personal, not just faster.
The Takeaway
The restaurant industry may be centuries old, but its payment rituals are ripe for disruption.
With $21 million in fresh capital and a founding team bringing deep domain expertise, operator credibility, and a global industry network, sunday is betting it can turn the checkout—long an afterthought—into the next frontier of guest experience.
If the first wave of restaurant tech focused on operations and delivery, the next will reimagine the guest interaction itself—turning the end of the meal into a driver of loyalty and revenue.
