Zest raises $1.8M pre-seed for spending-data restaurant discovery
What's the deal? ZestDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a restaurant recommendation app that builds personalised suggestions from real dining spending data, has raised $1.8M in pre-seed funding. The round was backed by Alexis Ohanian's 776 Fund, Steve Jang of Kindred VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and others. Since launching in November 2024, the app has surpassed 100,000 visits within weeks of opening to the public.
Users link a credit card, and Zest imports transaction records via Plaid to create a personal dining map. It filters out fast food and fast-casual spots, then learns from spending frequency and amounts to refine recommendations. Users can also follow friends or curated expert profiles for suggestions.
Co-founder Mario Gomez-Hall previously founded music recommendation platform Cymbal and served as design lead at social calendar app Saturn, which Snap acquired last year. Technical co-founder Alex Moller brings experience from Apple.
Why now? Consumer comfort with financial data sharing has grown considerably, thanks to services like Find My Friends and Snap Map. Gomez-Hall is betting that people who already share location data will share spending data too — if the payoff is good enough.
The app also aggregates over 80 million reviews from sources ranging from the Michelin Guide to Reddit, and plans to launch a "Fresh Picks" feature modelled on Spotify's "Discover Weekly" playlist.
What could go wrong? The concept isn't new. Blippy tried to turn purchase records into a social network in the early internet era and failed — it stopped at data sharing without building a deeper understanding of user interests. Zest must prove it can do more with the same raw material.
Linking credit cards also raises privacy concerns, even with Plaid as an intermediary. Convincing users to hand over financial data for restaurant tips is a higher bar than most social apps face.
The signal: Zest sits at the intersection of two growing trends: fintech infrastructure being repurposed for consumer experiences, and the push to replace algorithm-driven social feeds with trust-based recommendations. "It's more about those 'holes in the wall' you frequent — the taco joints you love and trust," Gomez-Hall says.
The startup's longer-term ambition stretches beyond dining. Gomez-Hall says the name "Zest" hints at food but points more toward "zest for life" — with plans to expand into other city hotspots and potentially shopping. If spending data proves a reliable signal for taste, the model could extend well beyond restaurants.
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