We're creating the world's first recommendation engine for the human palate, delivered to the consumer market via our app - "somm." We've started with wine, given the complexities in the space, putting a sommelier in everyone's pocket.
Founded in summer 2020, somm is building a recommendation engine for the human palate focused first on wine. The team started with wine given the nuances in the vertical and fragmentation in the consumer market, knowing that when they reached credible automation in something as complex and personal as recommending wine they could expand to other consumer products. Wine sets the perfect stage for all other F&B products, incl: coffee, tea, scotch, whiskey and even cannabis.
Embracing the facts that consumers have become digital natives and the hospitality industry has totally embraced tech and digital sales channels as a result of COVID, the company's core products are the recommendation engine marketplace.
They have a great team in place (ex Shopify, ex Alo, ex Wealthsimple, ex Delphia, and 3 sommeliers), and the company is founded and led by Jennifer Stasiewich who has a strong background in early stage tech and capital markets. The team has seen great traction to date (8% week over week download growth, inbound platform sign-ups, and their first B2B MRR agreements in place). They are now ready to step on the gas and they are raising their pre-seed/seed financing.
The team has received incredible press to date including being named to Yahoo's list of 38 loved women-run companies, a feature in SUSTAIN Magazine: "somm, the future of wine is tech" article, as well as Bay Street Bull. Note, that while the company is currently focused on the wine space, their vision is ultimately about much more than wine given the flexibility of the recommendation engine, along with the consumer sensory / behavioural data plays that they'll be able to explore over time.