Restworld is a start-up incubated at I3P that aims to become the meeting point for those working in the catering, tourism and hospitality industries by helping to retrain their professions, guaranteeing fair contracts and optimal solutions for both parties in order to ensure the well-being of all those involved in this sector. After a first funding tranche of 200,000 euro obtained in June 2022, today the young company has announced the closing of a new funding round of 300,000 euro.
The round sees the entry of important players from the Italian HoReCa (hotellerie-restaurant-café - a popular term for the food service and hotel industries), start-up and entrepreneurial scene, such as Startup Wise Guys, one of the most active early stage startup accelerators in Europe, Bakeca.it, the first Italian site of free online ads, Intervieweb, a company specialised in the development of IT solutions for human resources and consultancy for the recruiting process, and several business angels. Among them were Giancarlo Vergine (Founder & Managing Partner of Over Ventures), Giancarlo Rocchietti (President of the Investors Club), Alberto Brustia (co-owner of Ziccat), Vittorio Somaschini (business angel by profession) and Federico Menetto (business angel from the food tech world).
The start-up's goals
Founded in 2020 within I3P, the Incubator of Politecnico di Torino, by a team of work psychologists and engineers under 30, Restworld makes ethics, sustainability and innovation the cornerstones of its project. Today there are more than 70,000 members registered in its community, almost 50 Italian cities where the platform is active, around 2,800 job positions managed and more than 500 people helped to be hired.
Since the platform's inception, the number of companies that have joined the Restworld circuit has reached 800, but this figure is not definitive: each business is subject to periodic checks and audits, and those who do not fully meet the conditions over time are excluded.
"Through Restworld, our goal is to contribute to a real cultural change. There is an increasingly serious mismatch between demand and supply of labour, which to be solved requires not only a series of important investments, but also an important change of perspective," explained Luca Lotterio, CEO and co-founder of Restworld. "We are convinced that the HoReCa sector cannot survive until the way of thinking and the culture of the entrepreneurs themselves change. Those who work in the Horeca sector move away from it after a short time because of realities that 'legitimise' undeclared work and exploitation: with Restworld we want to shed light on all the realities that work in an ethical manner, in order to restore value to all professions, guaranteeing transparency and constant support."
The future of the project
The capital injection will enable Restworld to develop a new section of its platform, even clearer for people looking for a job opportunity, and an even more useful space for accommodation businesses wishing to expand their staff.
The new section of the platform will present a real map, where each job offer will be visually organised and will present a 100% transparent job description, where the salary will always be explicit and the company description always up-to-date.
In addition to small restaurants and hospitality businesses, Restworld collaborates with multinational companies such as Poke House, Filetteria Italiana, Berberé, Lavazza and the Pellicano Group. For the immediate future, the aim is to continue to establish itself in Italy.
"We are aware that in order to create a platform that can directly connect job seekers and job providers in Italy and abroad, significant investments are needed," Lotterio added. "This is why we are aiming in the coming months to structure ourselves even more at a corporate and technological level with the hope of finding financial partners, Italian or foreign, with whom we can establish a long-term collaboration, in order to support us also in our future internationalisation project."