Hospitality startup ecosystem
We track 17 organisations in this sector across 6+ countries.
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Allset
Overview: Allset is a food-tech startup that provides a platform for online restaurant ordering and pickup. Originally launched as a dine-in pre-ordering app, Allset allows customers to pre-order meals at restaurants so that the food is ready at a scheduled time and they can "skip the line". Over time, Allset expanded to enable standard takeout orders, curbside pickups, and even contactless dine-in where you arrive and your meal is served immediately. The convenience factor is central: Allset's app lets users browse menus of partner restaurants, pay in advance (including tip), and streamline the eating experience without waiting. For restaurants, Allset offers a marketplace to attract busy professionals and on-the-go diners, while avoiding the high fees of delivery services. By focusing on pickup and in-restaurant efficiency, Allset positioned itself as a lower-cost alternative to delivery apps for eateries, promising no couriers or delivery logistics - just seamless pickup transactions. As of 2021, Allset had thousands of restaurant partners, particularly in major U.S. cities, and had broadened its use-case to also support contactless dining during the COVID-19 pandemic. Founding Story (2015): Allset was founded in 2015 by two Ukrainians, Stas Matviyenko (Stan) and Anna Polishchuk, who moved to California to grow the business. The founders previously built a mobile payments startup in Ukraine (Settle), which gave them insight into restaurant payment pain points. They noticed that busy professionals often have limited lunch break time and that waiting for service at restaurants ate up much of it. Thus, Allset was conceived to let users pre-order and pre-pay for meals so they could "set" everything in advance and have all set when they arrive (hence the name). The concept started with a few restaurants in San Francisco and New York participating. Early growth was modest as it required signing up restaurants one-by-one and changing consumer habits. However, by offering a win-win - restaurants get more turnover at lunch with guaranteed orders, customers get time savings - Allset steadily gained traction. Matviyenko and Polishchuk leveraged their Ukrainian tech team to build the app cost-effectively. In 2016, they got into the 500 Startups accelerator, which provided seed funding and mentorship in Silicon Valley. By 2017-2018, Allset expanded to multiple U.S. cities and refined its model to also include standard takeout ordering. Product and Market: Allset's target users were urban professionals and corporate employees looking for efficient lunch options. It integrated with over 7,000 restaurants in the U.S. and also some in Ukraine by 2023. Cuisine-wise it was diverse - from fast-casual chains to local eateries. The platform's business model charges restaurants a commission per order, but it touted itself as having significantly lower fees than delivery apps like UberEats or DoorDash. This is because pickup orders do not involve logistics costs. Allset also at times charged consumers small convenience fees or offered a subscription for zero fees. Its competition includes not just the big delivery apps, but also restaurant reservation systems and point-of-sale providers who have added mobile ordering. However, Allset carved a niche in "order ahead for dine-in/pickup." During COVID-19, Allset quickly shifted focus to contactless pickup and curbside service, which aligned with public health needs. The app usage grew as more consumers opted for takeout and avoiding crowds. Post-pandemic, Allset continued to be relevant as many users, accustomed to mobile ordering, kept using it for efficiency. Traction: By the early 2020s, Allset had facilitated tens of millions of orders. It was particularly popular in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston. The app had over 2 million users and a strong repeat usage among its core demographic (e.g., office workers who would use it daily for lunch). Allset's restaurant network grew to include national chains as well as local favorites. A reported figure from around 2021 indicated nearly 7,000 restaurant partners across the US and Ukraine, illustrating its significant network. Partnerships with large chains (for example, they onboarded Panera Bread in some regions) helped validate the concept. In terms of scale, Allset's gross merchandise volume (the total value of orders through the platform) reached eight figures in USD annually. Press coverage often highlighted Allset as a rising star in the on-demand dining space, and it received awards like being listed in Forbes' 30 Under 30 (Matviyenko was honored in 2018). Funding and Investors: Allset attracted a mix of Silicon Valley and Ukrainian investors through its journey. Early on, it raised a $3.35M combined seed (including a $1M pre-seed from SMRK, a Ukrainian VC). In 2018, Allset secured an $8.25M Series A, with investors like Greycroft, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), VK (Digital Garage), and SMRK participating. This round helped fuel its expansion to new cities. By 2020, Allset had raised a total of about $16.6M in funding. A notable investor, Andreessen Horowitz, gave credibility given their prominence. Additionally, the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) co-invested in Allset, a nod to its Ukrainian roots and growth potential. The company was relatively capital-efficient, using a distributed team in Kyiv for development while its sales team signed restaurants in the U.S. According to PitchBook, Allset's valuation was healthy, though it never reached unicorn status. Acquisition by SoundHound (2024): A major milestone came in June 2024, when SoundHound AI, a Nasdaq-listed voice AI company, announced it had acquired Allset. The deal amount was undisclosed, but it marked a successful exit for the founders and investors. SoundHound's interest was in combining Allset's marketplace and restaurant partnerships with SoundHound's voice assistant tech for ordering (they have a voice ordering system used by restaurants). Through this acquisition, Allset's team (Matviyenko and Polishchuk) and technology joined SoundHound, aiming to power voice-enabled food ordering across SoundHound's large client network. The acquisition can be seen as a strategic fit: Allset brings the restaurant relationships and order workflow, while SoundHound brings cutting-edge voice AI. Allset's co-founders took on roles within SoundHound's leadership to continue growing this combined vision. For the Ukrainian startup scene, Allset's acquisition was a proud moment - a startup founded by Ukrainians achieved a notable exit on the global stage. Achievements and Impact: Allset's journey demonstrated the strength of Ukrainian entrepreneurs in the global arena of food tech. The company managed to enter the ultra-competitive U.S. food app market and carve a space for itself. It was recognized as one of Ukraine's top startups in multiple rankings. The company's growth also had a direct impact: it provided business to restaurants (especially small ones) by bringing them customers who might not have come in otherwise. Its focus on reducing wait times resonated with modern consumers' demand for convenience. Notably, Allset survived and adapted through the pandemic - offering features like dine-in ordering via QR code to minimize contact. This nimbleness likely made it an attractive acquisition target. Allset also set an example of transatlantic collaboration: R&D in Ukraine, business development in the U.S., which is a model other Ukrainian startups have since followed. Post-acquisition, the Allset app and brand continue to operate, now with the backing of SoundHound. With voice technology integration, a future use case might be ordering meals by simply speaking to your car or smart device, which could be the next level of convenience Allset helps enable. For Anna Polishchuk and Stas Matviyenko, their success with Allset has cemented them as influential figures in Ukraine's startup community, often mentoring younger founders and investing in new startups. Sources: vestbee.com, kyivpost.com, vcnewsdaily.com.
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Aroma Global 3
Aroma Global 3 d.o.o., based in Zagreb, produces and sells 100% natural, handmade gelato and sorbets under the aROMA brand, with packaging and store design inspired by 1960s Italian "La Dolce Vita" style that has won a Red Dot design award. The company runs gelato shops as well as an aROMA Academy and gelato tours, offering dairy-based gelato, water-based sorbets, biscotti, affogato and gelato frappe. It is backed by Croatian investor Prosperus Invest and has received EU regional development co-financing.
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Blueground
Blueground is an Athens-founded proptech company launched in 2013 by Alexandros Chatzieleftheriou that leases, furnishes, and rents apartments for mid-to-long-term stays of one month or more. The company operates in over 30 cities worldwide including New York, London, Paris, Dubai, and Athens, targeting business travelers, relocating professionals, and remote workers who want hotel-like convenience with the space of an apartment. Blueground has raised over $310 million from investors including WestCap, Eurazeo, and VentureFriends. It is Greece's most prominent venture-backed startup and a leading European alternative to traditional corporate housing.
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Brigad
Brigad is a French gig-economy marketplace connecting hospitality businesses with self-employed freelance staff such as waiters, chefs, and bartenders for short-term missions. Businesses can post a mission in minutes and only pay for completed work, while freelancers choose their own hours, get paid weekly, and have Brigad handle their contracts, invoices, and tax returns. The platform, active since 2016 in both France and the UK, reports more than 23,000 freelancers, over 12,000 businesses served, and 300,000+ missions accepted. Legally BRIGAD SAS, it is led by president Florent Malbranche.
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Crqlar
Crqlar is an Innsbruck-based hospitality software company that turns hotel and restaurant guest data into personalised service, syncing in real time with PMS systems such as Oracle, Mews, Protel, and Elite. Its tools include a smart drag-and-drop floor plan, half-board and full-board planning, an AI-powered guest briefing that flags allergies and special occasions, and online reservations with no-show protection. Crqlar reports serving over 2 million guests and 1 million merged guest profiles, and says its customers see measurable gains in upselling revenue and occupancy.
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Flipdish
Flipdish is a Dublin-founded hospitality technology company that gives restaurants, cafes, and takeaways their own branded ordering channels — web, mobile, kiosk, QR, and direct — as an alternative to handing 25-35 percent of every order to third-party delivery marketplaces. Founded in 2015 by brothers Conor and James McCarthy, the company raised a USD 100 million Series C led by Tiger Global in 2022 at a unicorn valuation and serves tens of thousands of restaurant locations across Europe, North America, and Australia. Beyond online ordering, Flipdish has moved into in-store self-order kiosks, loyalty, CRM, and analytics, effectively positioning itself as the POS-adjacent software layer that independent operators need to run a multi-channel business without betting their margin on Uber Eats or Just Eat. It is one of the most commercially meaningful Irish vertical-SaaS exits of the 2020s cohort.
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INTERGASTRA 2026
Hospitality and gastronomy trade fair with an innovation area for food tech and digital operations. Price: about EUR 35-50 for trade visitors. Strong for POS, kitchen robotics, and novel food ingredients.
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INTERGASTRA 2028
INTERGASTRA 2028 runs 12-16 February at Messe Stuttgart, the leading European trade fair for the hospitality, gastronomy and out-of-home food market held roughly every two years. Across ten exhibition halls, national and international exhibitors present concepts, technologies and products for hoteliers, restaurateurs and caterers.
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Internorga 2026
Foodservice and hospitality trade fair with a Newcomers Area for gastro startups. Price: about EUR 40-50. Strong for restaurant tech and beverage brands.
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Internorga 2027
Internorga 2027 runs 12-16 March in Hamburg, the international leading trade fair for hospitality and foodservice. The annual event pairs national and international exhibitors with congresses such as the International Foodservice Forum, plus industry competitions including the INTERNORGA Zukunftspreis and the Deutsche Gastro-Gruenderpreis.
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ITB Berlin 2026
World's leading travel trade show with a major eTravel World segment. Price: about EUR 60 day ticket or EUR 100 permanent pass. Essential for TravelTech startups selling to airlines and hotels.
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ITB Berlin 2027
ITB Berlin 2027 runs 16-18 March at the Berlin exhibition grounds. Billed as the world's leading travel trade show since 1966, the event covers destinations by region alongside market segments such as adventure tourism, business travel, LGBTQ+ travel, luxury travel, medical tourism and travel technology, plus the ITB Berlin Congress think tank.
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Mews
Mews is a cloud-native property management system built to replace legacy hotel software with an API-first platform. It powers hotel operations from booking and pricing to payments and guest communications, enabling chains to modernize at speed. By 2026, Mews is aggressively acquiring smaller travel-tech vendors and expanding global enterprise contracts, positioning itself as the default operating system for modern hospitality. The company is a Czech-born unicorn with a strong international footprint and deep Prague engineering roots.
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Nord mobil
Nord Mobil d.o.o., based in Samobor, Croatia, designs and manufactures mobile homes and glamping units that have been sold to campsites in Croatia, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and Sweden since 2013. The company offers several model lines, including sea-view, winter-ready and vertically oriented designs, and reports more than 3,000 units sold, 100 employees and a decade of manufacturing experience. Nord Mobil is a portfolio company of Prosperus Invest.
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Prosperus Invest
Prosperus Invest was founded in 2010 in Zagreb as a growth equity and private equity fund manager focused on expansion-stage SMEs across Croatia and the broader Adriatic region. Led by Joško Miliša and Partner Luka Orešković, the firm has grown assets under management approximately 4× to around €200 million. Its flagship Prosperus Growth fund (first close ~€50 million, backed by EIF and HBOR under the CROGIP program) commits at least 75% to Croatian SMEs in IT, hospitality, renewables, healthcare, and publishing, with notable investments including IntechOpen (scientific open-access publishing, Rijeka) and Neos (data analytics and cloud IT services).
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RobosizeME
RobosizeME s.r.o., based in Olomouc, Czech Republic, builds AI-powered workflow automation for hotel operations, covering financial reconciliation, VIP guest recognition and OTA payment and routing issues. Its automations are used by more than 5,000 hotels worldwide, including customers such as Radisson Hotel Group, Louvre Hotels Group, Jumeirah and Kempinski, integrating with systems like Oracle OHIP, Infor HMS and Shiji Daylight. RobosizeME is a portfolio company of Bulgarian investor BrightCap Ventures.
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Yellow Submarine
Yellow Submarine d.o.o., trading as Submarine, operates a chain of gourmet burger restaurants in Croatia, with a location most recently opened in Rovinj. The company positions its burgers as all-natural and homemade, using organic produce, local dairy and 100% local beef patties prepared in-house. Yellow Submarine is a portfolio company of the Zagreb-based investor Prosperus Invest.
