LONDON, United Kingdom — Alpa, a FinTech startup focused on the hospitality industry, has raised €2.9 million ($3.5 million) in pre-seed funding to develop a real-time financial operating system designed specifically for restaurant groups and hospitality businesses.
The funding round was led by Daphni, with participation from True Capital, 2100 Ventures, Firedrop, Oprtrs Club, Kima Ventures, Sonorcap, and a group of hospitality and technology angel investors. Notable backers include Voodoo founder Alexandre Yazdi and former Burger King France CEO and McDonald’s Europe CFO Jerome Tafani, who has joined the company’s board.
Founded in 2026 by hospitality entrepreneur Anton Soulier and former Vestiaire Collective engineering leader Jean-François Moy, Alpa aims to address one of the industry’s most persistent challenges: the lack of real-time financial visibility.
“Hospitality runs on thin margins, but financial visibility still operates on monthly cycles,” said Anton Soulier, co-founder and CEO of Alpa. “That gap creates massive inefficiency and destroys value. Alpa is built to close it by giving operators real-time financial clarity so they can make decisions during the month, not after it.”
The London-based startup is developing what it describes as the financial operating system for hospitality—a platform that provides restaurant operators with continuous visibility into margins, costs, cash flow, and profitability without relying on traditional accounting cycles.
Despite being one of Europe’s largest industries, hospitality remains heavily dependent on fragmented systems and delayed financial reporting. Many restaurant groups only gain a clear understanding of profitability weeks after month-end, once accounting processes are completed. This delay can prevent operators from making timely decisions around staffing, purchasing, pricing, and expansion.
According to industry research cited by the company, 79% of restaurants want access to real-time business data, while more than a quarter struggle to track even basic operational KPIs.
Alpa seeks to bridge this gap by connecting financial and operational data from point-of-sale systems, banking infrastructure, and supplier networks into a live operational profit-and-loss dashboard. The platform automatically structures and categorizes financial information, enabling operators to monitor business performance in real time.
Rather than replacing existing accounting software, Alpa is designed to complement it. While traditional accounting platforms focus on compliance, reporting, and historical records, Alpa focuses on operational decision-making and profitability management.
“The real moat is not just data access—it’s native connectivity,” said Jean-François Moy, co-founder and CTO of Alpa. “We’re building direct connections to the hospitality supply chain itself: POS systems, banking infrastructure, and food and beverage suppliers, and using automation and AI to structure that data into real-time financial understanding.”
The founders bring significant experience from both technology and hospitality sectors. Before launching Alpa, Soulier was one of Deliveroo’s earliest employees and helped lead the company’s expansion into France. He later founded Taster, a creator-led restaurant business that partnered with influencers, chefs, and content creators to launch virtual restaurant brands.
Moy previously led engineering teams across multiple European markets at fashion resale platform Vestiaire Collective, managing technology operations in London, Paris, and Berlin.
The company’s vision extends beyond reporting. Alpa believes the hospitality sector requires a dedicated financial infrastructure layer that can provide operators with the same level of real-time intelligence available in other industries.
The opportunity is substantial. Europe is home to more than two million hospitality businesses, many of which still rely on spreadsheets, disconnected software tools, and manual financial processes to understand business performance.
The newly raised capital will be invested primarily in product development and engineering. Alpa plans to expand its financial data infrastructure, deepen integrations with suppliers and hospitality technology providers, and accelerate development of AI-powered classification and automation capabilities.
The company is also investing heavily in machine learning to automate data processing and improve the accuracy of operational financial insights delivered to customers.
As hospitality businesses face rising labor costs, inflationary pressures, and increasingly competitive market conditions, demand for real-time financial visibility continues to grow. Alpa is positioning itself at the intersection of FinTech, AI, and hospitality operations, aiming to become the financial intelligence layer that modern restaurant groups rely on every day.
With strong investor backing and a founding team that combines deep industry expertise with technology leadership experience, Alpa is seeking to redefine how hospitality businesses understand and manage financial performance in real time.
