The company is already investing in R&D to build AI capabilities and cashless payment options

Chope, a Singapore-based restaurant reservation app, announced today it has raised a S$18 million (US$13.3 million) investment round led by Square Peg Capital.

Other investors involved in the funding were C31 Ventures and Moelis Australia. Existing shareholders NSI Ventures, Susquehanna International Group, DSG Consumer Partners, and SPH Ventures also participated in the round.

The money is planned to be used to build new features and Chope is investing money in R&D to pursue AI integration, cashless payments and social dining.

“Chope looks forward to our next stage of growth with this new capital and strategic partnership. With these resources, we are positioned to invest significantly in our USPs of user experience and customer service, while deepening our reach into our markets across Asia,” said Arrif Ziaudeen, the CEO of Chope, in a statement.

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Chope is both a reservation app and a restaurant discovery platform and while someone can use the product to book a dinner date at their favourite restaurant, the discovery feature may be more interesting.

The user visits the sites and enters their location (down to fairly specific neighbourhoods) and the type of food they want (in Singapore, the app has almost 45 options). They pick a time (or not), some magic happens behind the scene and suddenly the user is looking at a list of potential restaurants, their openings and the price range.

They can then book a time with just a couple of clicks.

As for restaurants, Chope acts as a business tool to help companies manage their bookings/queues, customer service, promotions and pre-payments.

The company is six years old and now has a presence in eight cities — Bangkok, Beijing, Bandung, Bali, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Shanghai and Singapore. It has over 3,000 restaurants as clients.

According to Chope, over 60 per cent of its customer-base comes from outside of Singapore — with Hong Kong, Shanghai and Indonesia representing the fastest growing markets.

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Overall, the company has raised nearly US$25 million. In June of 2015, the company raised US$8 million round led by  F&H Fund Management and  NSI Ventures. Prior to that it had raised US$3.5 million in total, including a US$1.3 million investment from Singapore Press Holdings in 2011.

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