San Diego’s EMN8 Raises $14.4M For Self-Service Sales Kiosks

San Diego-based EMN8, which develops self-service, touchscreen displays and systems for use in fast-food restaurants, theaters, theme parks, and other retailers, has ordered up more than $14.4 million in venture funding, according to a recent filing with government regulators.

The venture-backed company says it has raised all but $179,550 of a secondary round that began in January and aimed to raise about $14.6 million. EMN8 identifies Sid R. Bass Associates, GRP Partners, and Fort Washington Capital as investors on its website. Former Enterprise Partners VC partner Ron Taylor and Allegis Capital’s Spencer Tall are members of EMN8’s board.

An EMN8 kiosk
An EMN8 kiosk

Telephone calls to CEO Perse Faily at EMN8’s San Diego office went unanswered this afternoon. The startup specializes in point-of-transaction kiosks that feature animated software and graphics for placing and paying for orders. The company says its customers include the Carl’s Jr. and Jack in the Box restaurant chains, and Walt Disney World.

In an interview with a trade publication last year, Faily said, “Our mission at EMN8 is to deliver a compelling guest experience, improved guest satisfaction, and increased profit margins for our customers.”

Last August, EMN8 and New York-based IBM announced an agreement to jointly manufacture, market, and support EMN8’s self-service order and pay kiosks. As part of the deal, EMN8 said it would move production of certain kiosk hardware to IBM, calling its “OrderM8 4000” equipment the “kiosk design of choice” for quick-service restaurant operators. The partners also plan to develop future generations of kiosk products.

While similar technology has existed in banking in the form of ATMs, point-of-sale terminals have only become prevalent in recent years in such places as movie theaters, and at airline ticket counters where kiosks dispense boarding passes.

The fast-food industry, which began installing such kiosks about five years ago, represents a huge market for companies like EMN8. In the interview last year, CEO Faily says restaurant self-service technology has evolved into an integrated program that involves operations, marketing, and IT. EMN8 specializes in technology that includes the user interface, data and media storage, core software, point-of-sale interface, electronic payment interface, device drivers, hardware, network capabilities, and manager’s console.

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.