Bestie Bite Raises $1.6M to Bring AI Video Reviews to US

Jan de Vries · 2026-06-15

Bestie Bite, a Rome-based startup that's changing how people discover restaurants and how eateries market themselves, just closed a new $1.6 million funding round. The company is accelerating its push into the United States with an app built around short, authentic video reviews. This round was structured as a SAFE note and led by the Grassi family through their holding company G&G, which is also a shareholder in E80 Group S.p.A. The fresh capital comes less than four months after Bestie Bite's first $750,000 round led by Techstars, bringing the company's total funding to about $2.36 million. ### The Problem Bestie Bite Solves Let's be real: finding a good restaurant today is a mess. You scroll through endless written reviews, many of which are fake or paid for. Influencers flood your feed with sponsored posts that feel more like ads than honest recommendations. It's exhausting. On the flip side, small restaurants and cafes struggle to stand out. They don't have big marketing budgets or a team of social media experts. So they stay invisible, even when customers are actively looking for them. Bestie Bite tackles both sides of this problem. For diners, it offers a video-first app where every review is real and verified. For restaurants, it provides an AI-powered marketing system that creates and publishes content automatically. ### How AI Powers the Platform The company's co-founders, Carlotta Robbe Di Lorenzo and Caterina Vertefeuille, say authenticity is the most valuable asset online. "We are building a new standard that brings the full power of artificial intelligence to restaurants, always starting from real content," they said in a joint statement. For consumers, the app uses AI to understand preferences and search intent, helping users navigate video content faster. Unlike traditional platforms, Bestie Bite enforces strict verification: authentication checks, fraud detection, and even AI video detection to weed out fake content. ### Gamification and Rewards Trust doesn't come easy, so Bestie Bite uses gamification to encourage genuine contributions. Users earn cashback when they post authentic videos. The rewards are higher at partner restaurants through something called Missions, which directly ties into the business model. ### The AI Marketing Employee This is where things get interesting for restaurant owners. Bestie Bite offers what it calls an "AI Marketing Employee" — a system that replaces social media managers and agencies. Here's how it works: - A customer uploads one authentic video from the Bestie Bite community - The AI generates a full month's editorial plan - It publishes content autonomously across the venue's social channels - The restaurant owner doesn't need to lift a finger The startup says this service costs a fraction of what a traditional agency would charge. Plus, the platform provides sentiment analysis and performance insights, so businesses can monitor service quality in real time. ### Growth and Global Reach Bestie Bite has seen impressive organic growth since its founding in 2024. The numbers tell the story: - Over 100,000 users - More than 120,000 videos uploaded - Presence in over 80 countries One early success story is Pescaria, a restaurant chain that uses the platform to collect reusable video content and analyze customer experiences. ### What's Next The primary goal of this new funding is to consolidate Bestie Bite's foothold in Italy and, more importantly, expand aggressively into the U.S. market. The company wants to make its AI-powered video review system the global standard for restaurant discovery. If they succeed, we might finally say goodbye to fake reviews and hello to real, trustworthy recommendations. And that's something worth raising a glass to.