Bite Ninja, the tech startup that sources and enables remote workers for restaurants, announced the close of its pre-seed funding round. The emerging disruptor accrued $675,000 in the round, which was led by three prestigious firms – Y-Combinator, AgFunder, and Manta Ray.

Co-founded by Will Clem and Orin Wilson, Bite Ninja creates greater efficiency and workforce support at restaurants by tapping into their pool of highly trained remote waitstaff (“Ninjas”). The company’s team of Ninjas work from a location of their choice and appear on-screen to customers at menu boards in drive throughs or counters. The use of Ninjas provides restaurant managers increased flexibility and on-demand staff, a huge increase in upsells, near zero defect order-taking, and 100% staff reliability.

The need for Bite Ninja was accelerated during the pandemic but continues to uphold its relevance as employees opt for stay-at-home, flexible working environments with competitive pay. This pre-seed funding will support Bite Ninja’s scaling initiatives and prepare the startup for rollout at national food chains. 

“Bite Ninja is solving a number of issues that many restaurant owners are facing right now: workforce shortages, diminished customer service, and erratic employee retention and engagement,” said Will Clem, co-founder of Bite Ninja. Co-founder Orin Wilson said, “Our investors see the win-win outcomes that are made when business owners can lean on both their workers and technology to improve efficiency while creating a new, better environment for workers.”

Bite Ninja was born at Clem’s drive-thru, Baby Jack’s, in Tennessee. One Friday night, Will decided to prop his laptop at the drive-through lane and take orders from home by remoting into the system and… no one noticed he wasn’t in the kitchen. Today, the company boasts 3,000 US-based Ninjas trained and ready to take on shifts from home.