A small technology company based in Bishop’s Cleeve has gained international recognition after software it developed for independent restaurants was selected for promotion on Wordpress.org
Web Level Up, a web agency run from the Gloucestershire village, created DineKit to help restaurants, cafés and takeaways manage orders, bookings and payments through their own websites.
The software has now been included in the featured plugins section of Wordpress.org, giving the Bishop’s Cleeve-built platform exposure to website owners and businesses around the world.
DineKit allows hospitality businesses to manage online food orders, table reservations, till payments, customer loyalty schemes and kitchen orders from a WordPress website. Customers can also order from their tables by scanning a QR code.
Unlike many third-party ordering platforms, the system does not charge restaurants commission on individual sales. Businesses can instead receive payments through their own Stripe accounts and retain control of their customer information.
Founder Petras Newman-Predko said the project was created to give smaller hospitality businesses access to technology that can otherwise be expensive.
He said: “The big platforms have made it normal for restaurants to hand over a portion of every sale and lose control of their own customers.
“We wanted to approach things differently by giving independent businesses professional software without commission and allowing them to retain ownership of their website, sales and customer data.
“Being featured on Wordpress.org is a genuinely proud moment, particularly for a product developed here in Bishop’s Cleeve.”
The company hopes the platform will be used by independent hospitality businesses in Cheltenham and across Gloucestershire, as well as restaurants elsewhere in the UK and overseas.
Restaurants that already operate a WordPress website can install the software directly, while the company says it can also be incorporated into newly created websites.
Web Level Up is currently offering the system free of charge as it works to build a community of restaurants using and testing the platform.
The company said feedback from independent venues will help shape future development of the software.
