^{The quicker pitch: Notion}

We’ve bagged startups 6 months free of Notion’s Business Plan, plus Notion AI (worth up to $12k in savings).

Apply in 5 questions (we tested it and it took less than a minute).

Use button below or this link: https://ntn.so/quickpitchgrowthhub (the QP code will be pre-filled)

We run QP from Notion so it’s amazing to have them as a partner.

Join us, as well as the 94% of Forbes AI 50 companies and 50% of YC startups who use Notion, to consolidate your tech stack, reduce costs, and collaborate more effectively.

At a glance

Vessa is on a mission to streamline the restaurant experience through human-centred AI, from discovery and booking to payment and feedback.

• One point of contact. One intelligent assistant.

• Their tech learns your preferences, understands your context, and handles the admin of discovery and booking without the need of an app.

Quick fire details

• Headquarters: London, UK

• Employee count: 4

• Business model: B2C & B2B

• Backed by: 

  • Prev raised a £150k F&F round in February 2025

  • Pre-seed round: £25,000 from one angel investor/ advisor

• S/EIS: ✅

• Funding amount: £500,000 pre-seed at a £5M post-money valuation. To scale user acquisition, and begin monetising across both B2B and B2C channels.

The founders

• Founder & CEO, Peter Farrell: 25+ years hospitality sector experience,

  including 3* Michelin level kitchens. Founder and ex-operator of various

  restaurant, food hall and street food concepts. Supported 100+ operators through Food Motion consultancy agency, founded in 2019. NatWest Accelerator alumni.

The market

• The value of global AI-powered restaurant discovery and booking is set to reach £1.6B by 2031.

This startup is solving one key problem:

• The options for finding, booking and managing restaurants is highly fragmented with options from a lot of existing incumbents that are not designed for specific problems.

• Vessa are using AI to act as the discovery, booking and admin partner for all consumers while also acting as an additional distribution source for restaurants.

Traction metrics

• Private beta MVP built using their F&F fundraise capital.

• Secured two revenue-generating partnerships

• Grown a waitlist of over 300 engaged users

Competitive landscape

• General search engines and LLM’s (Google, OpenAI, Gemini etc)

• Direct industry competitors: Resy, OpenTable, TheFork, Revinate (B2B), ResDiary etc

  • Vessa are taking a different approach: They’re building the next-gen restaurant discovery experience, which is frictionless, smart, and personal.

^{The quicker pitch: Apply to QP}

We're growing faster than ever and we want to keep building momentum so we can intro more top founders to top investors.

More startups are applying. And the quality keeps going up.

For the every founder who has subscribed to us recently 👇

This is your chance to get featured in front of 3.5k engaged investors and startup operators. (Btw it’s free).

Our Take

Appeals

• Proactive and frictionless AI assistant (no app): Instead of users searching their AI learns customers preferences and suggests restaurants via WhatsApp or email, with no app or browsing needed.

  B2C + B2B value: For restaurants they deliver incremental bookings and unique customer insights without the high commission fees of legacy platforms.

• Hyper-personalised recommendations: By combining LLMs, user embeddings, and curated data Vesa can offer tailored choices, not generic lists like incumbents or legacy platforms. This completely eliminates the need to scroll.

Risks

• Slow tech adoption: Consumers or businesses may be slower to adopt AI-powered restaurant booking tools than the team anticipates, especially if existing solutions or habits prove sticky.

• Current lack of integration with major booking platforms: This may limit full automation in the MVP stage. Manual or workaround solutions could impact scalability until direct integrations or partnerships are secured.

• Capital urgency: The business requires funding to move beyond private beta and achieve meaningful market traction. Delays in fundraising will hinder product development and go-to-market efforts.

Last feature’s results

Our readers are NOT CONVINCED with NearybyStore.

Share QP

Know someone who loves startups as much as you do?