As of Q1 2025, Klaviyo was approaching 400 multi-unit restaurant customers, signaling a stronger foothold in a space traditionally led by niche providers. While Klaviyo is still best recognized for its ecommerce origins, it has steadily built momentum in a notoriously challenging vertical. Restaurantology’s latest website detections identified 396 brands, spanning every major segment:

• 214 in IND (2–5 units)
• 133 in SMB (6–20 units)
• 40 in MM (21–100 units)
• 9 in ENT (101+ units)

Unlike most restaurant tech platforms, Klaviyo wasn’t purpose-built for this space. And yet, its utility is undeniable.

What Klaviyo does, and why it resonates

At its core, Klaviyo helps brands turn first-party guest data into personalized communication via email, SMS, and automated journeys. What makes this different is how accessible and actionable the data becomes:

• Unified customer profiles with behavioral, transactional, and engagement data
• Powerful segmentation for targeting by recency, frequency, or spend
• Lifecycle automations (win-back, re-engagement, birthday offers)

Most restaurant brands haven’t historically invested in this level of owned-channel maturity. But that’s starting to change.

First-party ownership in a third-party world

As more restaurants try to reduce their dependency on marketplaces for awareness and traffic, platforms like Klaviyo are showing what’s possible. Restaurants are realizing that frequency, loyalty, and guest spend no longer need to run through marketplaces or legacy CRMs—they can be owned, activated, and measured directly.

This shift isn’t just strategic. It is structural, reshaping how restaurants invest in guest engagement and owned-channel growth.

And Klaviyo, with its ecommerce roots and global GTM engine, is positioned to capitalize.

The big surprise

Klaviyo’s success in restaurants runs counter to a long-standing trend: restaurant tech is typically dominated by niche providers. From POS systems to loyalty platforms, most vendors in this space either start vertically focused or struggle to gain traction.

Klaviyo flipped that. A generalist with strong horizontal infrastructure, it’s found traction where many specialists haven’t, especially across the the restaurant industry long-tail. Their team structure (heavily sales-led) and capital raises suggest they’re not just reacting to inbound demand, but instead intentionally pursuing the vertical.

Final thought

Klaviyo’s footprint in restaurant tech is a reminder that first-party data isn’t just a retention lever, it’s becoming a competitive differentiator. As more brands trade marketplace visibility for owned-channel control, vendors that enable recency, frequency, and personalized spend strategies will lead the way.

For vendors watching this shift, the takeaway is clear: vertical success isn’t just about vertical roots. It’s about vertical relevance.

Restaurantology will continue tracking which vendors not only enter the space, but reshape it.