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Did you say cotoletta?

, by Camillo Papini
Qodeup, a startup incubated by B4i, uses algorithms to streamline restaurant orders, explains CEO Fabio Marniga. It also translates menus for patrons

It is quick to present the menu to customers, instantly translates it into the language of the customer and provides him with a quick service at the time of payment. It progressively get acquainted and recognize all the patrons. It is called Qodeup and it is the web app of the same-name startup born in May 2019 and accelerated by B4i – Bocconi for Innovation since February 2020. The restaurateur in the flesh remains, as well as the waiters, but the tasks of presenting the list of dishes, with knowledge every Italian regional specialty, and ensuring digital payment can be entrusted to Qodeup (pronounced kyüdup). «It is a service via QR code, quick for the consumer and useful for streamlining the management of restaurant tables for the operator», underlines Fabio Marniga, co-founder and CEO of Qodeup. «In the near future, our platform will be enriched by new services such as the profiling of users who, whenever they return to the same establishment, will find their favorite dishes among the suggestions. We expect to start developing the new services at the end of this year», continues Marniga. «The goal is an ever-more personalized restaurant experience». In fact, the system evolves by analyzing the data relating menu browsing and ordering, for example which dishes are consulted the most and in what order.

Today there are 5 million unique monthly users. It is free for customers, says the CEO of Qodeup, while the merchant pays a percentage on each digital payment through the app. On the other hand, the menu consultation system is available according to a quarterly or yearly subscription formula. At the end of last year, the start-up clinched a €2.5 million fundraiser and now «we look at a sector that is becoming increasingly award of the quality behind our services», says Marniga. «I saw lot of improvised competition in the aftermath of Covid».