Olo Founder and CEO Noah Glass. / Photograph courtesy of Olo

Online ordering provider Olo makes its first acquisition.

The company said Thursday it would buy Wisely, a maker of customer relationship management software, for $ 187 million in cash and stock.

Olo said adding Wisely would help restaurants better use data to understand and market their customers.

Wisely’s technology includes automated marketing tools; reservation, waiting list and table management software; and an innovative Customer Data Platform (CDP) that allows restaurants to create profiles of individual customers. Olo offers online ordering tools and integrations.

Under the new entity, restaurants will be able to compile data across various channels that would otherwise be siled to create a single view of each customer. They can then use this information to market their customers in a more personalized way.

Olo said it was a critical step in his goal of digitizing the restaurant industry.

“The tools that help brands leverage customer data and turn it into actionable insights will be essential for them to better serve customers and manage the restaurant business as a whole,” said Noah Glass, Founder and CEO of Olo, in a statement.

The Olo system has been integrated with Wisely for about five years, and companies have seen “clear synergies” between their products, Glass said. He declined to say which of the 400 restaurant patrons in Olo also uses Wisely.

The $ 187 million acquisition consists of $ 77 million in cash and $ 110 million in Class A common Olo shares.

Glass said that until now, Olo has preferred to build their own technology rather than buy it.

“In this case, wWe saw a platform in Wisely that we thought was one of the best platforms out there, ”Glass said on a conference call Thursday.“ TIt was a much more interesting acquisition opportunity for us to make our first acquisition. “

Notably, the deal gives Olo marketing capabilities for the first time.

This is the fourth deal this week involving catering technology companies, which are using an influx of cash to consolidate and expand their services.