Backoffice raises €150K to bring restaurant and hospitality operations under one roof
Backoffice has raised €150,000 from FIRSTPICK and Lost Astronaut – capital that will fuel European expansion of its operations platform for restaurants, cafés, and hotels.
The Vilnius-founded startup is building a platform that simplifies the day-to-day of hospitality and food-service operations – from staff scheduling and shift swaps to payroll and internal communications. Employees can swap shifts, log working hours, and track their earnings in one place. Founders Erikas Pakėnas and Denis Stech say the idea came from personal experience. Today, they’re working to replace the patchwork of Excel sheets and messaging apps that most operators rely on with a single centralized system.
“I grew up watching my mother run her restaurants and bakeries: long hours, constant schedule changes, never enough staff. The people who build businesses like this love their teams, love the industry, are deeply hospitable, but they end up drowning in operations. Backoffice is an attempt to change that,” says E. Pakėnas.
The platform is already in use across more than 40 locations in Lithuania – from Michelin-starred restaurants to fast-paced late-night bars. Among them: Džiaugsmas, Pleassurie, Tempo, Ahha, Meating Room, Burro, Momo Grill, and Pacai. Roughly 500 users are active on the system today.
“We see the potential for this product to become infrastructure for the entire sector.”
– Marijus Andrijauskas, FIRSTPICK partner
“They’ve made strong progress in a relatively short time – and that’s what we value most: the ability to move fast and learn from the market. We see the potential for this product to become infrastructure for the entire sector. The average hospitality venue today juggles five or more separate systems; Backoffice is set on consolidating that into a single platform,” says FIRSTPICK partner Marijus Andrijauskas.
According to Lost Astronaut co-founder and CEO Marius Burgaila, the decision to back this team came down to both the real results already delivered and the potential ahead. There are over 2 million companies operating in hospitality and food service across Europe – more than 15,000 in the Baltics alone.
“We see not just a clear market need, but a team that has turned an idea into a working solution. At an early stage, those signals are the strongest investment indicator there is,” says M. Burgaila.
FIRSTPICK and Lost Astronaut have set out to invest in 100 early-stage startups over the next three years, with an average ticket size of around €100,000. To support that, they’re building an “All-stars” league made up of the Baltics’ best entrepreneurs – selected startups join a network of more than 250 standout operators who help them avoid common pitfalls, sustain growth, and stay focused on what actually drives results.