Choice Closes $7.1M Series A to Scale Restaurant Management Software Across Europe

Europe’s hospitality sector is undergoing a sustained wave of technological transformation, as independent restaurants and food-service operators seek integrated digital tools to manage ordering, payments, and customer relationships from a single platform. Against a backdrop of rising operational costs and intensifying competition from delivery aggregators, demand for purpose-built restaurant management software has accelerated markedly across Central and Eastern Europe in recent years.

Into this landscape, Prague-founded Choice has announced the close of a $7.1 million Series A funding round, bringing its total capital raised to $11.6 million. The round was led by Alea Capital Partners, a Lisbon-based investor specialising in B2B SaaS, with continued backing from existing shareholders Reflex Capital, Smartlink, and J&T Ventures.

What Choice Does

Choice offers an all-in-one restaurant operating system that bundles online ordering, contactless payments, table reservations, and marketplace integrations into a single subscription. Founded in 2021 by Alex Ilyash — a Forbes 30 Under 30 alumnus who previously built DAVINCI, a hotel reservations SaaS serving 10,000 properties across Europe — alongside co-founders Volodymyr Olyanitsky and Robert Novosad, the company targets independent restaurants and small food-service chains that have historically relied on fragmented, high-cost point solutions.

The platform currently counts more than 30,000 registered restaurants, of which over 7,000 are paying subscribers across nine active markets: the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, and Romania. Choice processes in excess of 1.5 million orders per month, representing approximately €35 million in monthly gross merchandise value (GMV). Entering 2026, the company reported approximately $5 million in annualised recurring revenue and confirmed it had reached breakeven — a notable operational milestone for a growth-stage SaaS business.

The Investment Case

The participation of Alea Capital Partners as lead investor carries strategic significance beyond the capital itself. The Lisbon-based firm’s focus on B2B SaaS and its regional network in Southern Europe is widely seen as a signal of Choice’s near-term geographic ambitions. Portugal is set to serve as the company’s first Western European beachhead, with Spain and Italy earmarked for subsequent phases. France, Germany, and the Netherlands represent a longer-horizon expansion target.

The proceeds will be deployed primarily into product development — with an emphasis on AI-integrated modules — and into building dedicated local sales teams in each new market. The company has also confirmed plans to open an operational hub in Bucharest, reflecting both the size of its Romanian customer base and the availability of local engineering and commercial talent.

Founder Perspective

Alex Ilyash, Founder and CEO, said: “By combining strong local sales teams, efficient capital deployment from our CEE base, and AI-driven product innovation, we are confident we can win market by market.”

Market Context

The European restaurant technology market remains highly fragmented, with a mix of legacy point-of-sale vendors, delivery aggregators, and newer SaaS entrants competing across geographies. Choice’s all-in-one positioning differentiates it from single-function tools by offering a unified data layer across the restaurant’s key operational touchpoints. As AI-driven features — such as predictive ordering and customer retention analytics — become increasingly standard, the company’s commitment to product investment will be closely watched by operators and investors alike.

The broader CEE technology ecosystem continues to attract capital, with the region’s combination of strong engineering talent, lower cost structures, and growing consumer markets making it an increasingly credible base from which to build pan-European businesses. Choice’s journey from Prague to nine markets in under five years is a case study in precisely that thesis.

Deal Summary

• Company: Choice
• Headquarters: Prague, Czech Republic
• Founded: 2021
• Founders: Alex Ilyash, Volodymyr Olyanitsky, Robert Novosad
• Round: Series A — $7.1M
• Total funding: $11.6M
• Lead investor: Alea Capital Partners (Lisbon)
• Other investors: Reflex Capital, Smartlink, J&T Ventures
• Paying customers: 7,000+ across 9 markets
• Monthly GMV: ~€35M
• ARR: ~$5M (entering 2026)