The Future of Restaurant Tech with Benedikt Knobloch, Hospitality VC

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Hosts:

• Yuri Rabinovich
• Niko Leon

In this episode, we speak to Benedikt Knobloch, a Founding Partner at Souschef Ventures, a hyper-specific VC fund focusing on restaurant tech. Before becoming an investor, Benedikt ran his own startups, so he’s no stranger to the operational side. He also acts as a growth advisor to many of the early-stage startups he invests in. Benedikt talks to us about trends in the hospitality industry and where he predicts the next explosive growth areas will be. It was a great conversation with an established expert in the field. There are so many attractive segments of this conversation in an industry that touches absolutely all of us

Episode Breakdown

• 0.00 - Intro
• 2:10 - Being an entrepreneur
• 11:28 - Being an investor
• 17:26 - Predictions on the hospitality industry
• 26:48 - Souschef Ventures
• 38:45 - Advantages of micro-VCs
• 50:00 - Common mistakes of investing

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Bio:

Benedikt Knobloch is a serial entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in the restaurant and hospitality sectors. He focuses on using technology to improve the dining experience. He is the founding partner of Souschef Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage restaurant tech startups in Europe. He and his team provide strategic guidance to promising ventures. Since 2013, Knobloch has been the Managing Director at Halonaut, driving technological advancements in various sectors, including the restaurant industry. He co-founded UNBIND, a commerce-as-a-service platform for out-of-home beverages, and played a key role from 2019 to 2023. UNBIND connects with gastronomy owners, achieving high response rates for sales and promotion messages. Before UNBIND, Knobloch co-founded Fedger, an AI/ML company specializing in document structure detection algorithms. From 2015 to 2019, he led a team that digitized restaurant menus. His entrepreneurial journey began with the founding of the Sports Café in Strasbourg, France, which, from 1998 to 2000, served the teachers and students of the Lycée Louis Pasteur. Knobloch's blend of technical expertise and deep understanding of the restaurant sector drives his ongoing innovation in the industry. He remains a key figure in restaurant technology.