Hostie builds an AI-powered virtual concierge for restaurants. Its voice bot, named Jasmine, answers phone calls in the restaurant's own voice, along with texts and emails, to handle reservations, takeout orders and private event inquiries, freeing staff from being pulled off the floor to answer the phone. The platform integrates with the reservation and POS systems restaurants already run, including OpenTable, Resy, Tock, Toast and Square, and gives managers live transcripts and visibility into every conversation. Over 100 restaurants use it, including Flour + Water, the Slanted Door Group, Trader Vic's, Cactus Club Cafe and Michelin- and James Beard-recognized kitchens.
The company was founded in 2024 in San Francisco by Randall Hom, who previously led Ready Meals at Instacart and owned Back to Back, a Nob Hill pizzeria and natural wine bar, and Brendan Wood, an engineering leader from Uber, Eaze and Lindy.ai, later joined by founding engineer Anson Airoldi, formerly of Meta. Hom started the company after living the problem himself, answering phones mid-shift while trying to run a restaurant. Hostie raised a $4M seed round in April 2025 led by Gradient Ventures, Google's AI-focused fund, then a $12M Series A in July 2026 led by Obvious Ventures, bringing total funding to $16M.