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 find restaurants and how restaurants market themselves, just closed a fresh $1.6 million funding round. The company is using this money to speed up its expansion into the United States. ### The New Funding Round This round was done through a SAFE instrument and led by the Grassi family through their holding company G&G, which is a shareholder in E80 Group S.p.A. The raise comes less than four months after Bestie Bite's first $760,000 round led by Techstars. That brings the startup's total funding to about $2.4 million. ### What Bestie Bite Does Founded in 2024 by Carlotta Robbe Di Lorenzo and Caterina Vertefeuille, Bestie Bite helps people discover restaurants, bars, and hotels through short, real video reviews created by users. The company also gives restaurants the first AI-managed video marketing system built for the hospitality industry. “We want to change this market. Authenticity is the most valuable and scarce asset on the web: we are building a new standard and a technological layer that brings the full power of artificial intelligence to restaurants, always starting from real content. With this round, we are accelerating from Italy to the United States to make this the global standard,” the co-founders said in a joint statement. ### The Problem They're Solving Bestie Bite says it's tackling a two-sided problem. On one side, people—especially younger generations—struggle to find restaurants, cafes, and hotels they can trust. Why? Because of unreliable written reviews, scattered information, and content that's dominated by influencers and sponsored posts. On the other side, the restaurant industry is mostly small businesses that don't have the budget or marketing know-how to stand out online. So valuable local places stay invisible, right when customers are looking for them. ### How AI Fits In Bestie Bite sees AI as the key solution for both sides. For consumers, the app uses artificial intelligence to understand what you're looking for and help you find the right spot faster and with more confidence. It navigates through video content to give you real, trustworthy recommendations. Unlike traditional reviews, every piece of content on the platform goes through verification standards and authenticity rules. That includes authentication, fraud detection, and AI video detection—features the company says are unique to Bestie Bite. ### Building Trust Through Gamification The platform builds trust with a cashback system that rewards users for posting authentic videos. The best part? Missions at partner restaurants offer higher cashback, which is directly tied to the business model. ### The AI Marketing Employee On the business side, Bestie Bite has launched an "AI Marketing Employee" for the hospitality industry. This is an artificial intelligence system that replaces social media managers and marketing agencies. Here's how it works: - You start with one authentic video from the Bestie Bite community. - The AI generates a full editorial plan for the next month. - It publishes content across the venue's channels automatically. - The restaurant owner doesn't need to do anything. The startup says this service costs a fraction of what a traditional agency would charge. Plus, the platform gives businesses sentiment analysis and performance insights, so they can monitor service quality in real time. ### Growth and Traction Bestie Bite has seen impressive organic growth. It now has over 100,000 users and more than 120,000 videos uploaded from over 80 countries. One of its first structured use cases is Pescaria, which uses the platform to get reusable video content and analyze customer experience. ### What's Next One of the main goals of this round is to strengthen Bestie Bite's position in Italy and, more importantly, to launch its US expansion. The company is betting that American consumers and restaurants will embrace its authentic, AI-driven approach to video reviews.