High-Tech Hot Dogs: Inteladata’s Smart Foodservice Tools Is Bringing New "Vision" To Convenience Store Foods
Discover how Atlanta-based Inteladata is using AI and computer vision to revolutionize foodservice at convenience stores and restaurants. Its Updog and Orders Up platforms provide real-time tracking, inventory insights, and sales optimization for hot food items.
There is a scene in the TV sitcom Silicon Valley where some of the main characters try to develop a hot dog classification app that always makes Atlanta entrepreneur Robert Dreesch laugh.
Because while the scene is funny (and pokes fun at West Coast tech culture), it highlights how much goes into creating a state-of-the-art computer vision platform. But “hot dog classification” technology is important business for restaurants and convenience stores across the country.
Just talk to Dressch, who is the founder of Inteladata.
The company, which first got off the ground in 2014, provides data analytics and AI insights to stores that work with prepared food. That includes its Updog platform, which uses AI to track the movements on roller grills (those commercial cooking appliances used to quickly heat and serve hot foods). This allows restaurants and convenience stores the ability to get real-time sales and inventory monitoring for some of the most revenue-generating parts of their business. By integrating camera vision technology, stores can ensure that roller grill selections are fresh and optimized based on customer demand.
The goal is to “improve foodservice execution at the store level but also improve customer satisfaction and significantly boost sales,” Dreesch added.
Updog Users
For its office in Atlanta Tech Village, Inteladata has built an impressive customer base. Brands currently using Inteladata’s technology include Moe’s SW Grills, Little Caesars, Chick Fil A, Meijer, and Circle K.
“Updog is currently installed in over 100 locations and [we] expect to be in over 1000 locations by the end of the year,” Dreesch told Hypepotamus.
On top of Updog, Inteladata has built out its Orders Up product, a price lookup code system specifically for foodservice within convenience stores that need to track sales, inventory, food cost, and labor remotely.
The Southeast’s FoodTech Scene
While Inteladata is making significant strides in optimizing prepared food operations, it's not the only Southeast startup that sees potential at the intersection of food and technology. The region’s agricultural heritage and its long-standing hub for restaurant chains that have become national stars, makes it a unique place to build food-related technology.
Other startups in the industry that are worth noting include Popmenu, See Menu, Goodr, Retaaza, AmplifiedAg, and ComplianceMate.
