Restworld, one million to match supply and demand for jobs in the catering industry
Capital increase for the start-up whose clients include companies such as Lavazza, Kfc and Baldin: the goal is to reach 3,000 hires by 2025 and a turnover of 10 million in three years
3' min read
3' min read
He brought academic research into the restaurant industry to revolutionise the staff recruitment process. Waiters, head waiters, restaurant managers, chefs. Selected in no time thanks to the aid of artificial intelligence. Now Restworld, a Turin-based start-up set up in 2020 and nurtured by the incubator of the Turin Polytechnic, is planning to overhaul the access platform for the service it makes available to restaurateurs - and which allows them to make matching between supply and demand in just a few days - to make it more flexible and, above all, usable by everyone, from small entrepreneurs to large groups.
All thanks to an injection of fresh capital: a new partner - Mia Rigo, head of The Magic Collection Retreats, an international hotel chain - and a recapitalisation by the Estonian business accelerator Startup Wise Guys and Ristoservice, which were already part of the corporate structure: a total of one million euros.
"The goal,' says Luca Lotterio, the company's CEO, 'is to increase the number of our customers to 5,000, which currently stands at 800. This by 2027, in Italy and globally: we do not want to limit ourselves. Besides, we already operate in Europe, on behalf of Italian chains or restaurants abroad'. So far Restworld has employed 2,000 people. 'But by 2025 we want to reach 3 thousand,' Lotterio explains. Numbers that are still small for the national catering world, where an average of 500 thousand people are hired every year and where finding qualified personnel remains one of the most long-standing problems suffered by operators.
The growth path is mapped out to reach the target of 10 million turnover within the next three years. An ambitious plan for a start-up that starts with a turnover of one million euro. But it has already managed to convince big names - its customers include Lavazza, the Baladin chain of breweries, the Kfc group (fast food) - and it wants to make a name for itself by becoming a point of reference for everyone, from starred restaurants to neighbourhood pizzerias.
Lotterio is an occupational psychologist. He founded the company, which in three months will become an innovative SME, together with his colleague Davide Lombardi. Also with them are Arianna Dani, economist, Lorenzo D'Angelo, management engineer, and Edoardo Conte, software engineer. The new online platform should be fully operational by the end of 2025.
The recruiting process developed always starts with an interview with the restaurateur using the service. An interview that examines 55 variables, from which the engineers, applying artificial intelligence, extract an ad that is automatically published on all major platforms. The selection of candidates is also automated, through whatsapp, which frames skills and characteristics. The final interview always remains in the hands of the restaurateur.
