Live deployments show 3-7% lift in average tickets and 5-10% improvements in order accuracy.
San Francisco, CA (Restaurant News Release) Arc, the AI-powered drive-thru platform for quick-service restaurants, today announced a $10.76 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Arc is the first AI-powered drive-thru platform to give QSR operators the tools to manage their drive-thru like a digital channel, with real-time observability, A/B testing and voice AI ordering.
Founded by top executives from Square and Cash App, Arc’s team brings years of experience building mission-critical commerce tools at scale. They are partnering with two major chicken brands, live in multiple locations, and expanding quickly. Across locations, Arc is delivering 3-7% lift in average ticket, 5-10% improvement in order accuracy, and customer satisfaction and speed are on par with their partners’ best crew members.
“The drive-thru is the most important channel for most QSR brands, and operators run it with almost none of the tools a modern digital business takes for granted,” said Mike MacLennan, Co-Founder of Arc. “Arc turns the drive-thru into a measurable, optimizable channel for the first time, and the results are showing up in the numbers our customers care about.”
Arc’s AI-powered drive-thru platform uses fine-tuned frontier models, trained on thousands of real drive-thru conversations, to create fast, friendly, and branded AI agents. These agents can stand up to real-world drive-thru conditions like background noise and complicated order modifications, while handling frequent menu changes and limited time offers in minutes. “Using AI for ordering at the drive-thru is a challenging application to get right. It needs to be very fast, extremely accurate and tolerant of the poor audio and broken phrasing common at the drive-thru,” said Ali Hussain, Co-Founder of Arc. Arc’s platform integrates with all major POS and drive-thru headset providers, so brands do not have to invest any upfront capital to get started.
“We’ve followed voice AI for the drive-thru closely. It’s one of the most valuable channels in the local economy, and the team that can actually deliver in real operating conditions will define the category. Mike and Ali bring the right combination of experience building category-defining technology at Block and a clear understanding of what restaurant operators need. That’s why we’re proud to lead this round,” said Olivia Moore, Partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
The $10.76 million seed round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Adverb Ventures, Broadway Restaurant Group LLC, United Talent Agency, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar, and Ticketmaster President Saumil Mehta.
About Arc
Arc is on a mission to empower local businesses with AI. Its first product, an AI-powered drive-thru platform, gives QSR operators the ability to manage their drive-thru with the precision of a digital channel. Arc is headquartered in San Francisco and backed by leading operators and investors including a16z, Adverb, Broadway Restaurant Group, and United Talent Agency. Learn more at TryArc.com.
Press Contact:
Dave Lewis
Head of Business Development
dave@tryarc.com