Hospitality & Food startups
Startups working the floor of restaurants and hotels - ordering, service, revenue and the operational grind guests never see.
What counts as Hospitality & Food
Hospitality and food covers startups working the floor of restaurants and hotels - ordering, service, revenue and the operational grind guests never see. On this hub that means restaurant technology from QR menus to AI order-taking, hotel automation, grocery and meal planning, and the food brands and suppliers that sit behind the plate.
The floor, not the kitchen
This hub is about operations. Very little of it is about cooking - it is about ordering, staffing, supply and the parts of a venue a guest is not supposed to notice.
Order taking is the pressure point
VoicePlug is the clearest example of where restaurant AI actually landed: automating phone, drive-thru and kiosk orders through natural conversation. It targets the single most staffing-sensitive task in the building.
Around it sits the digital ordering layer. Orderific bundles QR menus, marketing automation and analytics for smaller restaurants. Fleksa was founded in 2020 and built for the moment when every restaurant needed a digital front door, and Foodi Menus rebuilt the menu itself for a phone.
The most inventive is CSCONNECT, which uses AR to show a dish in 3D before ordering - solving a problem restaurants rarely name, which is that an unfamiliar dish description makes people order the thing they already know.
Groceries, fast and specific
Food Rocket competes on pure speed, delivering within 10 to 15 minutes with backing from Circle K. GoMeat competes on specificity instead, connecting halal and kosher shoppers with local specialty stores that mainstream delivery apps do not carry.
Grocery Shopii attacks the step before the purchase, cutting meal planning and the shop that follows to about five minutes, and Reciple rebuilds recipes as an ad-free platform that pays small creators fairly.
Brands built by their founders
The food brands here are profiled as businesses rather than as products. The Jank grew from Lamar Jones's own recipe into an award-winning sauce and spice line. NEXT! Foods works on plant protein in convenience food, and Twilight Picnics turned premium local Australian produce into a packaged experience.
The part nobody photographs
Ingredient Brothers sources ingredients globally on behalf of clients, and Brumback Restaurant Equipment sells and installs the equipment every kitchen on this hub depends on. Neither is glamorous, and both are the reason the rest of it works.
| Company | What it does | Where it operates |
|---|---|---|
| Orderific | All-in-one platform for smaller restaurants covering QR menus, marketing automation and analytics. | Restaurant tech |
| VoicePlug | AI voice automating phone, drive-thru and kiosk orders through natural conversation. | Restaurant tech |
| Fleksa | Digital suite founded in 2020, rebuilding the restaurant customer journey online and in venue. | Restaurant tech |
| CSCONNECT | Uses AI and augmented reality to show dishes as immersive 3D visuals before ordering. | Restaurant tech |
| Foodi Menus | West Coast startup rebuilding the restaurant menu for mobile. | Restaurant tech |
| BOTSHOT | All-in-one hospitality suite for hotels, resorts and B&Bs, aimed at revenue and guest experience. | Hotel tech |
| Food Rocket | Rapid grocery delivery within 10 to 15 minutes, backed by Circle K. | Grocery |
| GoMeat | Marketplace connecting halal and kosher shoppers with local specialty stores, running since 2019. | Grocery |
| Grocery Shopii | Cuts meal planning and online shopping to five minutes using recipe recommendation. | Meal planning |
| Reciple | The first ad-free recipe platform built to be equitable for small creators. | Meal planning |
| NEXT! Foods | Convenience food brand making authentic global dishes with high-quality plant protein. | Food brand |
| The Jank | Award-winning gourmet BBQ sauces and spice blends, created by Lamar Jones. | Food brand |
| Twilight Picnics | Curated pre-packed luxury picnics built around premium local Australian food. | Food service |
| Honey & Roses Coffee Co. | Digitising the cafe experience so it can be recreated at home. | Food brand |
| Pearl Lemon Café | Boba cafe in the UK, part of the wider Pearl Lemon group of businesses. | Venue |
| Ingredient Brothers | Sources ingredients worldwide for clients using a distributed global team. | Supply |
| Brumback Restaurant Equipment | Full-service restaurant equipment company handling sales and installation. | Supply |
Latest in Hospitality & Food
Data-Driven Dining - AI Insights from Orderific That Restaurants Can Follow
Orderific is an all-in-one platform for small and medium-sized restaurants, offering tools like QR code menus, marketing automation, data analytics, and…
AI Powered Order Taking. Natural Conversations
VoicePlug provides AI-powered voice solutions for restaurants, specializing in automating phone, drive-thru, and kiosk orders. Their services improve…
How do hotel automation solutions transform the hospitality industry?
BOTSHOT provides an all-in-one hospitality suite for hotels, resorts, and B&Bs to increase their hotel revenue and provide a comforting stay experience to…
AI Brings Menus to Life
CSCONNECT revolutionizes restaurant menus with AI and AR technology, offering immersive 3D visuals that eliminate guesswork for diners. Our platform…
Fleksa: Pioneering the Future of Restaurant Tech in the Post-Pandemic World
Founded in 2020, Fleksa offers a comprehensive suite of digital solutions for restaurants. Its platform transforms customer journeys both online and…
The Birth and Life of a Restaurant Equipment & Supply Company
Brumback Restaurant Equipment Company (RES), Inc. is a full-service restaurant equipment company that specializes in the sales and installation of…
Could this be Australia’s most bougee picnic service?
Twilight Picnics curates pre-packed luxury picnics with a focus on premium local food that can be enjoyed wherever the adventure awaits. It’s completely…
Inspiring Culinary Innovation: A Visionary Journey with NEXT! Foods
NEXT! Foods is a pioneering convenience food brand that specialises in crafting authentic global dishes with high-quality plant protein.
The Ingredient Brothers Story: Adding the Secret Ingredient to the Food Industry
Ingredient Brothers teams up with clients to source ingredients from across the world, utilizing a global team to move quickly and efficiently.
Pearl Lemon Café - The New Boba Café to go to in the UK
The Pearl Lemon Group, a growing group of businesses serving the international business world, includes [Pearl Lemon Café](https://pearllemoncafe.com/).…
The Jank is Cooking up Good Business! - Lamar Jones and his Recipe idea simmers into a multi-million
Created by Lamar Jones, The Jank Gourmet BBQ Sauces and Spice Blend deliver an award winning, innovative, alternative in the sauce, spice and condiment…
How Food Rocket Changes Buying Habits
Food Rocket is a rapid grocery delivery startup backed by Circle K that provides fast grocery delivery within 10-15 minutes of the order’s placement. Its…
Digitized meal planning with Grocery Shopii
Grocery Shopii shortens the meal planning and online shopping experience to 5 minutes or less by using machine learning to fuel a recipe recommendation…
GoMeat, specialty meat from the store to your door
GoMeat is a blockchain-based digital marketplace connecting specialty (halal/kosher) product consumers with local stores. Since 2019, GoMeat has attracted…
Foodi reconstructing the mobile menu
Foodi Menus is a West Coast startup changing the face of restaurant menus.
Cook up a storm with Reciple
Reciple is the first ad-free recipe platform that is equitable for small creators.
Digitizing the café experience with Honey & Roses Coffee Co.
Honey & Roses Coffee Co. is digitizing the café experience, bringing it straight to the comfort of your own home. Honey & Roses Coffee is the ultimate…
Frequently asked questions
What does the Hospitality and Food hub cover?
Four things - technology sold into restaurants and hotels, grocery delivery and meal planning, consumer food brands, and the suppliers and equipment companies behind them. It is deliberately operational rather than culinary.
What is the biggest change in restaurant technology here?
Order taking. VoicePlug automates phone, drive-thru and kiosk orders using natural conversation, which removes the most staffing-sensitive task in a restaurant. Orderific, Fleksa and Foodi Menus work on the digital menu and ordering journey around it.
Is anyone doing something unusual with menus?
CSCONNECT is the outlier. It uses AI and augmented reality to show a dish as an immersive 3D visual before it is ordered, on the argument that the guesswork in reading a menu is what makes diners order conservatively.
Do you cover grocery as well as restaurants?
Yes. Food Rocket does rapid delivery in 10 to 15 minutes with backing from Circle K, GoMeat connects halal and kosher shoppers to local specialty stores, and Grocery Shopii compresses meal planning and the shop that follows into about five minutes.
Are the food brands here tech companies?
Mostly not, and that is deliberate. The Jank, NEXT! Foods, Twilight Picnics and Honey and Roses are profiled as food businesses. What makes them worth reading is usually the route to market rather than the technology.