Restaurant-focused point-of-sale company Toast went on a hiring spree in 2025, increasing its employee headcount by roughly 14% during the year.
Boston-based Toast had 6,500 employees at the end of 2025, according to the company's annual letter, compared with 5,700 at the end of 2024.
The expansion is a stark contrast to other payments companies that have announced layoffs over the past 14 months.
Buy now, pay later company Klarna Group revealed in March that it slashed its workforce by 21%. Payments company Bill cut its workforce by 6% in October, amid pressure from activist investors, and Stripe pushed out 300 employees in January 2025.
But the biggest hit to a company's headcount came last week from digital payments company Block, which said Thursday that it would cut nearly 40% of its staff – 4,000 employees – and use artificial intelligence to do their work.
A spokesperson for Toast declined to comment on the company’s hiring.
Analysts were mostly impressed with the expansion of Toast's headcount.
"We see the increase as a positive signal," Jefferies analyst Samad Samana wrote in a Feb. 20 note to investors. The larger staffing positions the company “for durable growth."
Toast rapidly added restaurants to its roster throughout the year. The company’s customer count increased 22% to 164,000 restaurants in 2025, according to Feb. 12 news release with its earnings report.
That figure represents roughly 15% of U.S. restaurants, Truist Securities analyst Matthew Coad wrote in a Feb. 12 note to investors.
Executives announced a venture into the drive-thru sector in the most recent earnings call, a move that could net more fast-food restaurant clients.
Analysts believe that Toast’s market share and investment in artificial intelligence make the company well positioned to add even more customers in the coming years.
“Having the data of 15% of US restaurants (across menus, orders, staffing, etc.), plus their AI investments, means they will continue to create more and more products to automate workflows for restaurants,” Coad wrote.
