The UK government has awarded a £350,000 grant to hospitality tech firm Embargo to develop an AI model for its CRM platform as businesses are encouraged to embrace automation to achieve growth.
The UK Smart Grant will support the construction of what Embargo has called the first fully automated, AI driven CRM platform for hospitality businesses.
The platform will capture and analyse customer data, looking at products bought, times of day purchases happen, the weather during busy and slow periods and other sources of information to determine pricing, marketing and loyalty strategies.
Embargo co-founder Tsewang Wangkang said as the cost of running hospitality businesses grows with inflation and National Insurance contribution increases, small firms in the sector will need automation to maximise profit efficiency.
“This sector needs help,” Wangkang said. “We are beyond excited to receive this grant and take our mission to the next level. SMEs deserve the highest level of technology in an easy-to-use, scalable form.”
The UK Smart Grant, delivered by Innovate UK, allows businesses to apply for a share of a £25m funding pool to support commercially viable research and development (R&D).
Founded in 2017, Embargo is a CRM, loyalty and ordering platform serving over 2,000 hospitality SMEs. The company raised a $1.1m (£850,000) seed round in 2021 and a further £740,000 last year.
Beyond the grant funding, Embargo is also finalising an Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) funding round.
“Our cash-efficient strategy and product-led growth have attracted fantastic investors to our round,” added company co-founder Fryderyk Szydlowski.
“We are looking to oversubscribe it given the interest we have received and use the fact that we still have EIS allocation left. There’s a lot of work ahead of us but we couldn’t be more excited. Hospitality SMEs need powerful, easy-to-use solutions more than ever and we are here to provide them.”