PAR Technology got its start as a defense contractor in the 1960s offering analytics services, but today the company has transformed into a software service provider for major restaurant chains.

The publicly-traded company’s management team, led by CEO Savneet Singh, has transitioned the company away from selling point-of-sale hardware to offering software for restaurants’ customer sales and payments. Acquisitions have fueled the company’s strategy shift.

PAR Technology, based in New Hartford, New York, sold its former government contracting business last June, and has made six acquisitions in six years to extend its reach in the software business. Most recently, PAR Technology bought St. Louis Park, Minnesota-based restaurant data analytics company Delaget for $132 million in December.

“Our entire thesis is to acquire the products that enterprise restaurants need and stitch them together in a really tight fashion so that they can have a better, more unified experience for their guests,” Singh said in an interview last month.

As the company has moved to diminish its hardware operations and build its software offering, it has posted net losses the past three consecutive years, with the loss narrowing to about $5 million last year, according to its annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week. At the same time, revenue jumped about 27% last year over 2023 to about $350 million.

The CEO explained how the company is knitting the acquired operations together, including combining the back-office software operations of the former Restaurant Magic firm, a small operation it acquired in 2019, with the Delaget business.

The Delaget deal added fast food restaurants, including those under the Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, Burger King and IHOP brand names, to others it acquired last July by way of its $206 million acquisition of the Australian company Task Group. Task offers transaction management software for Starbucks coffee outlets and the Mexican restaurant chain Guzman y Gomez.

PAR Technology also delved into the convenience store arena last March when it purchased the digital engagement software company Stuzo for about $190 million.

In addition to point-of-sale services, PAR Technology offers loyalty program, digital ordering, delivery, analytics and payment processing services, catering to about 140,000 restaurants and retail outlets in some 110 countries, according to the annual filing.

The company has about 1,580 employees worldwide, the filing said. That includes some workers in upstate New York, Canada and Austin, Texas, said Singh, who is also president.

Singh is intent on continuing the company’s acquisition spree, perhaps even this year, given a “very active pipeline” of potential targets, he said. He has been increasingly interested in back-office software, which can aid restaurants in managing workers, scheduling and inventory, among other operations.  

“I absolutely think we will continue to be acquisitive,” Singh said. “We look at acquisitions as part of product development, not as a financial endeavor.”

PAR Technology’s founders, who served in the U.S. Air Force, established the company in 1968, with its namesake initials referring to pattern analysis recognition, and sold technical and analysis services to the U.S. government. A decade later they developed an early point-of-sale hardware system for retail use.

Prior to becoming PAR Technology’s interim CEO in 2018, Singh was a managing partner of Tera-Holdings, a niche software businesses he co-founded, according to his profile in the company’s proxy filing last year. He also co-founded GBI, also known as Gold Bullion International, an electronic system allowing investors to trade precious metals.

PAR Technology faces a swarm of rivals include mega processor Fiserv’s Clover unit as well as startups such as Shift4, most of which have been scaling through acquisitions, driving valuations for such targets higher.

Singh is undeterred by the extensive competition in the restaurant arena, saying his company has carved out a niche offering a suite of services to large restaurant chains.

“By combining our products together, we give the customer a more seamless experience,” he asserted. “It's really this conceptual idea that by integrating these core products, versus having them be a bunch of distinct offerings, we can create a really special outcome.”