Reserve Acquires Mobile Payment App Dash, Finds New Investor in Diageo

The reservations app battles continue

Reserve, the restaurant reservations and payment app that counts Jon Favreau and Jared Leto among its investors, is continuing on its acquisitions spree: The New York-based startup just acquired a mobile payment app called Dash.

Dash was founded in 2013 and enabled users to pay — or split — their tab at 250-plus restaurants across the U.S.; it also had an intriguing "Venue Vibe" feature that showed users real-time data to determine how busy (or not) a restaurant was at any given time. Reserve says the Dash acquisition will help enable it to integrate with restaurant point-of-sales systems, and to "provide better guidance on where and what to eat, bring simpler checkouts, and make those pesky expense reports a lot easier."

In contrast to other apps like Resy, Reserve is aiming to be in all-in-one solution (and marketing itself as "your personal dining concierge") by enabling users to make restaurant reservations and pay for their meal; it charges users a flat $5 fee for using the service. And while the restaurant reservations and mobile payment app wars continue to heat up, it looks like Reserve has some staying power: After raising an additional $15 million in funding last year, it's now found a new investor in Diageo, the beverage giant that owns brands such as Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, Smirnoff, and Guinness.

Previous Reserve acquisitions include a fellow reservations service called Zurvu and payment technology app Hail, among others.

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