ClubKviar Raises €700k Seed Round To Expand In Europe

Wining and dining in top restaurants is great, isn’t it? Who doesn’t love trying new creative cuisine and being waited on hand and foot? However, going out to try new restaurants every night isn’t for the feint of wallet. Thanks to the rise of daily deal and restaurant reservation sites, finding a good deal is easier than before but when you’re busy as hell, spending hours delving through pages and pages of crap to try and find a restaurant that is A: any good, and B: has a good deal, is harder than you can imagine. Plus who on earth wants to extract a massive coupon from their back pocket, whisper a secret password or present a special members card in the restaurant? Not me, thanks. That doesn’t look good in front of a prospective girlfriend (hypothetically, of course) or business client. And don’t get me started on why these sites don’t work for restaurants! Groupon et al. has bankrupted more than one unsuspecting business and caused millions of headaches on 3 different continents.

Thank heavens’ then for ClubKviar. A private gastronomic club with a curated selection of a city’s top restaurants with a members benefit of 30% discount on the final bill. ClubKviar is directed at young professionals so the whole experience is based on simplicity and discretion. First off, it’s a private club so you need an invite to get in. Secondly, the selection of restaurants has been handpicked by their gastronomic experts so you don’t have to waste hours crawling through a jumbled mess to find something of quality.

Most importantly there are no passwords, coupons or secret handshakes. You don’t even mention ClubKviar at the restaurant. You eat what you want, drink what you want and receive a 30% discount on the final bill. You can see how attractive this is from a business perspective (savings!) and also for impressing the hell out of your numerous girlfriends/boyfriends/bosses/clients/mother-in-laws.

I’ve used the service a few times now and am very impressed with how simple and discreet it is and also surprised and how addictive it is. If you know the restaurant scene then you will recognize restaurants in Madrid such as Sergi Arola, Pedro Larumbe o Julián de Tolosa; in Barcelona, Avalon, Neichel o Espai Kru and La Maison de la Truffe, Le Thoiu or Le Berkeley in Paris. The selection is wide with restaurants varying in price ranges for differing tastes and wallet sizes.

Founded by Stewart Masters, Christopher Fuchs and Gonzalo Cebrian, who saw the need for a sustainable solution for filling excess capacity in high end restaurants, ClubKviar enables top restaurants to attract their target clientele, fill their empty tables (depending on what they have available that day) and have the guarantee that their image will be respected. As ClubKviar only works with quality restaurants, they have the peace of mind that a Michelin Star restaurant wont be on the same page as Tommy’s Pizza Parlour.

At the end of 2013, ClubKviar raised a funding round to the tune €700K from renowned international investors such as 500Startups, Grupo Intercom, Emmergia and various business angels including Evaristo Babe (founder of Sin Delantal) & Martin Sinner (founder of Idealo.de). The budding startup is using the funds to drive expansion to other European capitals and to build out their product (iPhone app and more cities coming soon!)

If you’re lucky enough to know someone who’s a member then reach out to them for an invitation!