Dishio's AI Platform Hits 350 Restaurants, Raises $2.5M Seed

Dishio, an artificial-intelligence platform for restaurant operations, said it signed more than 350 restaurant customers in its first year. Restaurants using the system reported year-over-year sales growth of 10 to 20 percent and average retention lifts of 15 percent within months of implementation, according to the company.

The platform addresses a long-standing friction in the industry: most operators manage transactions, reservations, loyalty programs, online ordering, and marketing through separate systems that do not talk to each other. Dishio pulls data from QR menus, point-of-sale terminals, reservations, loyalty accounts, and digital advertising into a single customer intelligence layer. Operators can see which campaigns drove visits, what a guest ordered previously, how often they return, and which offers are most likely to bring them back.

“What restaurants need is visibility into what’s driving repeat business,” said Brett Linkletter, CEO of Dishio Holdings. “Most operators are still stuck with disconnected systems that track transactions but don’t help build guest relationships. Dishio unifies those touchpoints and turns them into revenue and profit margin growth.”

A core differentiator is the AI-powered creative engine. It automatically generates marketing assets tied to guest behavior and restaurant performance data. Instead of relying on static campaigns or generic promotions, restaurants can continuously produce and test personalized creative aimed at specific audiences, menu items, offers, and customer actions.

“The AI creative engine came from years of managing restaurant campaigns through Dineline and seeing how difficult it was for operators to produce high-performing marketing at scale,” said Jace Kovacevich, COO of Dishio Holdings. “Restaurants are expected to constantly create new campaigns, promotions, social assets, and offers. Most teams don’t have the internal resources to keep up. Dishio allows operators to move faster without sacrificing relevance or authenticity.”

The company formally introduced its parent entity, Dishio Holdings, which also houses Dineline, a restaurant marketing agency that has worked with 2,500 brands including IHOP, Dairy Queen, and Dallas BBQ. The holding company raised a $2.5 million seed round at a $20 million valuation, led by Linkletter and Kovacevich.

One early adopter, Shaggy’s, a multi-location Gulf Coast brand, uses Dishio across its locations. “Having better visibility into how guests discover us, engage with us, and return has been incredibly valuable,” said Rimmer Covington, the brand’s owner and operator. “Dishio has helped us build one-to-one guest relationships across locations while giving us clearer insight into what’s driving engagement and visits.”

Dishio plans to expand its feature set through 2026 with an ad campaign builder inside the platform, advanced reservations systems, additional remarketing tools, and more connected hospitality functions. The longer-term goal is an intelligent operating system that lets restaurant operators own the customer journey from discovery to repeat visits.