Forkast

What Forkast does

Forkast is an AI-native revenue management and pricing intelligence platform built specifically for restaurant chains and multilocation operators. Founded inside The Wharton School with proprietary pricing and margin-leak models co-developed alongside Wharton and NYU-affiliated researchers, the company ingests item-level menu, sales, competitive, and POS data to deliver live, location-aware price recommendations across dine-in, pickup, first-party delivery, and marketplace channels. The core product surface comprises the AI Pricing Engine, Competitor Intelligence, Profit Forecasting, Smart Price Ranges, Hourly Traffic Insights, and a Revenue & Profit Manager dashboard, with stated outcomes of 15-25% profit uplift and up to 240 basis points of EBITDA recovery for operators.

The company commercializes through a three-tier subscription model — Starter at $2,499/year (competitor benchmarking and local market tracking), Main at $4,999/year (price monitoring and recommendation plus menu engineering with a dedicated expert), and Pro via Contact Sales (multi-location management, smart specials, personalized onboarding, and 24/7 premium support) — sold through a hybrid self-serve/enterprise field-sales motion anchored by a 15-minute live menu audit. Named customers span single-shop NYC concepts (Hey Sunshine Kitchen, Benares), multi-state groups (Rooted), and national chains (Red Robin, Pokeworks), with the company reporting 100+ live restaurant pilots and 200+ menus analyzed across U.S., U.K., and India research footprints.

Operationally, Forkast is a small (1-10 employees), fully remote, privately held Delaware corporation backed by Antler with academic partnerships through Wharton and NYU and an industry-network partnership with the Outside The Box F&B founder collective. The founding team — Kiran Chokshi (CEO), Yashodhana Raj (COO), and Jeet Shah (Founding Engineer) — combines pricing science, restaurant operations, and AI engineering. The firm monetizes via annual and multi-year SaaS subscriptions with no setup fees or per-location surcharges, and supplements product distribution with a content and research-publishing strategy including the annual Restaurant Margin Crisis Global Industry Report and the Forkast Journal blog.

Name

Forkast

Legal name

Forkast Restaurants

Website

https://forkastrestaurants.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Forkast is an AI-native revenue management and pricing intelligence platform for restaurant chains, ingesting menu, sales, and competitor data to deliver live, location-aware price recommendations and profit forecasts across multilocation operators in the U.S., U.K., and India.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Restaurant revenue management software

NAICS

Computer and Computer Peripheral Equipment and Software Merchant Wholesalers (423430)

SIC

Wholesale-Computers & Peripheral Equipment & Software (5045)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYTHALAOAM

AI/ML Revenue Optimization Platforms & Decision Automation

Travel & Hospitality/Travel Technology & Distribution Services/Dynamic Pricing and Revenue Management Tools

SECONDARYTHALACAN

Upsell, Ancillary & Merchandising Platforms

Travel & Hospitality/Travel Technology & Distribution Services/Hospitality Tech (PMS, CRS, Channel Managers)

Keywords

• Restaurant pricing software
• Revenue management platform
• Menu optimization
• Pricing intelligence
• Competitor benchmarking

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Subscription SaaS: Annual and quarterly subscription tiers (Starter at $2,499/year, Main at $4,999/year, Pro at Contact Sales) providing access to AI pricing engine, competitor intelligence, and menu optimization tools. No setup fees, no per-location surcharges.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Forkast sells an AI-native revenue management SaaS platform for restaurant chains that delivers a unified pricing and offers system of action across every location, item, and channel. The platform combines a real-time AI Pricing Engine, 24/7 Competitor Intelligence, Profit Forecasting, Smart Price Ranges, Hourly Traffic Insights, and a Revenue and Profit Manager dashboard, sold via annual subscription tiers with no setup fees and no per-location surcharges.

Product overview

Forkast is an AI-native revenue management platform for restaurant chains offering a unified pricing and offers system of action. The platform is built on proprietary science developed at The Wharton School and comprises the core AI Pricing Engine (delivering live, location-aware price recommendations), Competitor Intelligence (monitoring competitive pricing 24/7), Profit Forecasting (science-backed demand and margin prediction), Smart Price Ranges (margin-safe price boundaries), and Revenue & Profit Manager (operational dashboards). These capabilities are delivered through three tiered subscription plans: Starter ($2,499/year for competitor benchmarking and market tracking), Main ($4,999/year adding AI pricing recommendations and menu engineering), and Pro (enterprise tier with multi-location management and premium support). The company also publishes The Restaurant Margin Crisis annual industry report.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Forkast Platform The complete AI-native revenue management system for restaurant chains — one pricing and offers system of action across every location, item, and channel. Built on proprietary science from The Wharton School. Sold via three annual subscription tiers (Starter at $2,499/year, Main at $4,999/year, and Pro via Contact Sales) with no setup fees and no per-location surcharges.

Quantifiable outcome

• Up to 25% profit uplift per location in pilots
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability6 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerForkast was born inside Wharton where the company was founded in 2023. Proprietary pricing and margin-leak models were developed with Wharton and NYU-affiliated researchers. The academic affiliation provides research credibility and access to pricing science expertise.
• Outside The BoxminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerF&B founder collective that supports Forkast as a partner. Provides industry network and operator community connections within the food and beverage sector.
• NYU (New York University)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerForkast's pricing and margin-leak models were developed with NYU-affiliated researchers in addition to Wharton. Contributes to the academic rigor of the pricing science.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• 5-Out: 5-Out applies AI to restaurant sales forecasting, labor optimization, and pricing, offering a similar AI-native, hospitality-vertical revenue management approach to Forkast's pricing and forecasting engine.
• ClearCOGS: ClearCOGS provides AI-driven demand forecasting and predictive ordering for restaurants, directly overlapping with Forkast's profit forecasting and demand-prediction capabilities for multi-location operators.
• Presto Automation: Presto has historically pursued AI-driven restaurant automation including dynamic pricing and voice/ordering, competing with Forkast in applying AI to restaurant pricing and operational decisions.

Broad incumbents

• Crunchtime: Crunchtime provides restaurant operations, inventory, and labor management software to multi-unit operators; its food-cost and operational analytics intersect with Forkast's margin-leak detection value proposition.
• Restaurant365: Restaurant365 offers a back-office finance, inventory, and operations platform for restaurants, sitting adjacent to Forkast's menu engineering and vendor variance insights with overlapping restaurant-chain customers.
• Toast: Toast is the dominant restaurant POS and operations platform for multi-location operators; its expanding analytics and marketing modules overlap with Forkast's pricing, forecasting, and competitor intelligence surface area.
• Olo: Olo is a digital ordering and delivery platform serving large restaurant chains, holding channel-level data and ordering relationships that overlap with Forkast's channel-aware pricing and delivery reconciliation capabilities.
• Square for Restaurants (Block): Square for Restaurants provides POS, payroll, and analytics for multi-location operators; its broad footprint and bundled analytics compete with Forkast's positioning for fast-casual and SMB restaurant segments.
• Lightspeed Restaurant: Lightspeed's restaurant POS suite serves multi-location operators with reporting and analytics that overlap Forkast's pricing and traffic-insights capabilities, particularly in the casual and fine-dining segments.

Emerging players

• Incentivio: Incentivio offers restaurant marketing, loyalty, and online ordering technology to multi-location operators, providing adjacent customer-engagement tooling that complements Forkast's pricing and margin focus.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/forkast-restaurants
• Instagraminstagram.com/forkastrestaurants

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Forkast