BonAppetour - Online Food-sharing Startup Raises US$500K to Change the Way We Travel
(PRWEB) May 24, 2016 -- Singapore-based startup BonAppetour has raised US$500,000 from Serial tech entrepreneur and investor, Wong Toon King of FarSight Capital and Prasetia Dwidharma, Indonesian angel investor Budi Setiadharma's investment arm, spearheaded by Arya Setiadharma and Ardi Setiadharma.
With this funding, BonAppetour’s focus will be on growth; expanding their presence into the top culinary hubs around the world, including Rome, Paris, and Barcelona, where they already have a thriving community.
BonAppetour is a social dining platform that aims to be the Airbnb for home-dining. Their mission is to enable travelers to connect with local hosts through unique dining experiences, thus forging new friendships and meaningful travel experiences.
“With the funding, we will be able to expand our offerings into new markets. Other than the culinary hubs in Europe, our travel community has also been seeking dining experiences in Tokyo, Bangkok and Melbourne. We are prepared to grow our community in these top culinary destinations and are receiving host applications at the moment,” says CEO and cofounder, Rinita Vanjre.
“We believe that they can be very successful as a brand furthering global food and hospitality tourism by making local home dining a highlight of each visitors travel experience, as many of their raving BonAppetour fans have testified,” says Wong Toon King of FarSight Capital. “We bet on big ideas, and people who have the grit and daringness to pursue them. We like to say we are “looking for moonshots!” BonAppetour is one of those kinds of investments.”
"At first, we were a bit skeptical because BonAppetour has a very big dream and it is attacking many countries at the same time. However, after we met the founders and listened to what they said about what has been done and what plans are in the pipeline, we are convinced that this investment is the right one," added Arya Setiadharma of Prasetia Dwidharma.
Co-founded by Inez Wihardjo, Giovanni Casinelli, and Rinita Vanjre in 2013, BonAppetour started off with growing the community in key culinary hubs in Europe, like Rome, Paris, and Barcelona. Today, BonAppetour has more than 500 passionate hosts on the platform who have hosted thousands of guests for a dining experience at their homes.
BonAppetour works with talented local home-chefs and hobby chefs to curate one-of-a-kind dining experiences. The team hopes to help home chefs realise their dream of cooking and serving up genuine hospitality to people all over the world. Some examples of a BonAppetour experience include:
A traditional 6 course feast with an Italian nonna in Rome
A dining experience in a luxurious 18th century apartment in Paris
A paella making workshop on the rooftop in Barcelona
Watch what a BonAppetour experience looks like here
Even as BonAppetour expands their presence globally, the team has held firm in building an empowered and curated community by endeavouring to meet their hosts, either personally or through their ambassador network and verifying the experiences that hosts are offering.
BonAppetour believes that they are only as good as their hosts. So they have diligently developed a host onboarding and verification process around key principles that encourage hosts to maintain high quality hosting styles.
Human oriented approach: By meeting the hosts and understanding their strengths, the team is able to curate experiences that highlight the hosts strengths and unique selling points.
Growth opportunities for hosts: Hosts on BonAppetour have access to key resources such as training programs, photography services and more.
The team at BonAppetour, made up of individuals from Italy, Singapore, Indonesia, UK and Paris is on a mission to change the way people are discovering new cultures and travel destinations, and make the world a smaller, better place.
Rinita Vanjre, BonAppetour, http://www.bonappetour.com, +65 82885950, [email protected]
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