Amex-Backed Blackbird Wants Restaurants to Cut Payments Middlemen
The Blackbird network has expanded to San Francisco and Charleston and has plans to expand to more markets this year.
Photographer: Yuki Iwamura/BloombergBlackbird Labs Inc., the American Express Co.-backed restaurant loyalty platform founded by Resy creator Ben Leventhal, has a set of ambitious goals: disrupt the payments industry, lure consumers to restaurants with the promise of rewards and collect highly valuable personal data.
Leventhal, who sold Resy to Amex for an undisclosed sum in 2019, established Blackbird as a way to give restaurants more and better data on individual diners. Hospitality mainstays like airlines and hotels have cashed in on their loyalty programs by gleaning immensely-valuable information about their travelers, but rewards have never quite caught on for independent restaurants.