Toast, Inc. (NYSE: TOST)

Toast, Inc., a prominent player in the financial technology and digital solutions industry, is publicly recognized by its ticker symbol, TOST. The company is a leading provider of point-of-sale (POS) solutions specifically tailored for the restaurant industry. Toast's mission is to empower the restaurant community to delight their guests, do what they love, and thrive.

Toast operates in the restaurant industry, a highly diverse and complex sector marked by low profit margins, high employee turnover, and intricate regulations. The company offers a comprehensive suite of software-as-a-service (SaaS) products and financial technology solutions. This extensive range encompasses integrated payment processing, restaurant-grade hardware, and a broad ecosystem of third-party partners.

The company's primary offerings include restaurant operations and point of sale, digital ordering and delivery, marketing and loyalty, team management, supply chain and accounting, financial technology solutions, and platform and insights. The restaurant operations and point of sale product from Toast provides a seamless connection across restaurant operations, guests, and employees, thereby enhancing the dining experience.

Toast's digital ordering and delivery product allows customers to manage and consolidate digital ordering and delivery across Toast-provided solutions and third-party ordering channels. The marketing and loyalty product offers a suite of guest-focused solutions designed to boost a restaurant's cash flow by fostering increased engagement with their guests.

The team management product streamlines the entire employee onboarding, management, and payroll process. The supply chain and accounting product offers a suite of back-office tools for restaurants, including accounts payable automation, inventory management, ingredient price tracking, and recipe costing.

Toast's financial technology solutions include payment processing, Toast Capital, and purchase plans. The payment processing product ensures fast, secure, and integrated payment processing through its POS devices, standalone contactless reader, or Toast Tap, and online ordering applications.

Toast's platform and insights product provides real-time sales, menu, and labor data, enabling customers to analyze their results and enhance performance over time. The reporting and analytics product offers access to performance data regardless of physical location, and its automatic nightly email shares critical daily insights needed to operate the business successfully.

Toast competes with a variety of providers, ranging from cloud-based point of sale platforms and legacy point of sale platform payments solutions to point technology providers addressing specific front or back of house operations. The company believes it holds a competitive edge in several aspects.

Toast's customer success team supports customers throughout their entire lifecycle, starting from onboarding and extending to ongoing customer care. The company invests in scalable and efficient onboarding solutions that deliver a distinctive customer experience. Toast also provides multi-channel customer support available 24/7, 365 days a year via chat, phone, or web.

The company has a diverse workforce of over 5,500 employees worldwide, with approximately two-thirds having prior experience in the restaurant industry. Toast is dedicated to ensuring employee safety and well-being, offering competitive compensation and benefits such as healthcare, mental health support programs, and parental and family leave.

Toast is committed to environmental sustainability, aiming to minimize its use of natural resources and waste production, and working toward net-zero emissions to mitigate climate change. The company has shared its full fiscal year 2022 greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory, inclusive of Scope 1, Scope 2, and relevant Scope 3 categories, and has set a net-zero goal for Scope 2 emissions for fiscal year 2022.

Toast protects its intellectual property through a combination of patent, trade secret, copyright, and trademark laws, as well as contractual arrangements. The company has developed a patent program and a strategy to identify, apply for, and secure patents for innovative aspects of its platform and technology.

Toast is subject to various federal and state regulations, including those related to anti-money laundering, consumer financial protection, and environmental sustainability. The company is also subject to state licensing requirements for its payment technology solutions and insurance-related activities.