500 Startups-Backed Skipola Cuts out Middleman with White-Label Apps for Restaurants

WHAT: Restaurants can launch their own white-label mobile apps for food ordering, loyalty programs, email and SMS marketing. The Skipola [ @theskipola ] platform will eventually be rolled out for other types of small businesses.

LAUNCHERS: Igor Lebovic, CEO, [ @ilebovic, LinkedIn ]. Jeff Zellner, CTO [ LinkedIn ]. Jack Moffitt, engineer, [ @metajack, LinkedIn ]. Jason Bertsche, engineer.

WHY: Grubhub charges 15% per order, which can cost as much as $20K a month. Online ordering is more efficient than taking phone orders. Consumers can check into places, rate and review them but can't interact with the merchants.

"Getting merchants to come online with their brick and mortar stores will fundamentally change how we pay for our purchases, how long we wait for them, how merchants advertise, and what else we can do while being in the store," CEO Igor Lebovic told LAUNCH via email.

INSPIRATION:  The founders are convinced that brick and mortar stores will soon become just as integrated online as their e-commerce counterparts.

BUSINESS MODEL: Monthly fee for app $99 with additional premium services of email and SMS marketing.

INVESTORS: Dave McClure, Christine Tsai,  Paul Singh and 500 Startups.

RAISING: $500K.