Slang AI Raises $36M Series B to Scale AI for Guest Communications Across Every Restaurant
Purpose-built "Superhost" platform for hospitality has raised $68M to date, serving 2,000+ restaurant locations with 95%+ guest satisfaction
NEW YORK, Feb. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Slang AI, the first and leading AI platform purpose-built for hospitality, announced today that it has secured $36 million in Series B funding led by US Venture Partners (USVP), bringing the company's total funding to $68 million. The round includes $28M of equity and $8M of debt. Thayer Investment Partners and former Stripe COO Claire Hughes Johnson also participated, along with existing investors Homebrew, Stage 2 Capital, Active Capital, Wing VC, Collide Capital, and Underscore VC. Slang AI will use the investment to further expand and deepen its agentic voice AI platform for guest communications in hospitality settings, empowering restaurants, hotels and venues to eliminate missed calls, improve revenue capture, enhance the service capabilities of existing staff members and derive data-driven insights into their operations and customer relationships.
Slang AI's sophisticated, custom-trained voice AI platform answers every inbound guest call with precision, warmth and professionalism, acting as a "Superhost" and setting the stage for a white-glove customer experience from the guest's initial interaction. Available 24/7, the platform goes far beyond other hospitality AI systems that simply answer questions, handling more complex interactions such as booking reservations, intelligently routing high-value requests to the right staff, instantly handling guest inquiries, and recognizing returning guests and VIPs. In total, the company's Superhost platform is designed to help restaurants further elevate the personalized hospitality that keeps loyal customers coming back.
Demand for AI-driven solutions that enhance restaurants' operations and drive real ROI is surging, with recent industry data demonstrating that 8 out of 10 restaurant executives plan to increase AI spend this year and 94% of operators saying that AI is critical for remaining competitive. Slang AI was an early mover in identifying this trend, and has established itself as an indispensable partner to restaurants and restaurant groups including Texas de Brazil, Carmines, Riot Hospitality Group, Dineamic Hospitality and more by delivering up to 20x ROI for operators along with a 2x increase in phone reservations and 95%+ guest satisfaction.
Moreover, as high-quality data emerges as the key driver of success for enterprise AI deployments, Slang AI has developed a powerful competitive advantage with its dataset of over 25 million customer calls from 10 million unique guests. The company also offers seamless integration with leading online reservation and events platforms including OpenTable, SevenRooms, Tripleseat and Yelp.
Slang AI Co-Founder and CEO Alex Sambvani said, "The best restaurants in the world succeed because they make every guest feel known. Hospitality is about remembering people, anticipating their needs, and never missing an opportunity to serve. Slang AI makes that level of personalization possible at every restaurant, not just a handful of elite establishments. We're building technology that unlocks a new level of personalization and human connection to every interaction, at any scale, and we deeply appreciate our restaurant partners' and investors' shared belief in our vision."
Slang AI's "Superhost" Solves Longstanding Pain Points for Hospitality Operators
Restaurants, hotels and venues rely on inbound demand to drive revenue, but they consistently struggle to respond to all the phone calls, voicemails, emails and forms that arrive every day. According to Slang's own data, up to 50% of inbound opportunities to restaurants go unanswered daily, with roughly 20% arriving after hours. In addition, 10-20% of calls fail during handoff or follow-up, and many private dining and catering requests stall over days of back-and-forth.
At a time when restaurants face intense margin pressure and growing labor challenges, operators are often forced to choose between answering the phone and being fully present with the guests in front of them, leading to degraded service levels and potential brand damage.
Slang AI's solution is a custom-built agentic voice platform that instantly and consistently captures demand, converts it into bookings and drastically expands the capabilities of existing staff by freeing them to focus on service.
Slang's hospitality Superhost:
- Answers calls instantly, including at night and on weekends;
- Handles reservations, private dining, catering, and common guest questions;
- Qualifies high-value inquiries and routes them to the right team;
- Syncs directly with reservations, events, and CRM systems; and
- Works across the channels guests already use, including voice and text.
The platform logs and tracks every guest interaction, giving operators full visibility into inbound demand, with faster booking and more consistent guest response quality. Just as importantly, it helps restaurants manage costs by enhancing revenue capture without adding headcount.
Founding Farmers Restaurant Group Co-Founder Dan Simons said, "Slang AI has fundamentally impacted our business. Before Slang, we were missing calls, reservations, and private event leads that our team couldn't get to in time. Now those opportunities are captured automatically, and guests who might have booked elsewhere are booking with us. It has delivered meaningful, measurable results, while removing constant interruptions so our staff can stay focused on delivering the highest value human interactions."
Slang AI's Sustainable Competitive Advantage in the Hospitality AI Race
Slang AI's Superhost platform is designed to handle complex and delicate guest conversations that can determine that guest's choice of one restaurant over another. This level of sophistication is made possible by the company's proprietary dataset of 25 million calls from over 10 million unique guests across more than 2,000 restaurant locations, built up since the company's launch in 2019.
Slang AI recognized early in the AI era that this dataset would be crucial in teaching its platform how to respond to nuanced caller behavior: how guests phrase requests, when they hesitate, where confusion tends to occur, and what makes an interaction feel smooth and reliable.
Today, Slang AI uses these insights to create sustainable competitive advantage by continuously improving its platform's accuracy, timing, tone and clarity. The result is a voice AI that sounds natural and understands intent quickly.
US Venture Partners General Partner Rick Lewis said, "Slang AI has built something incredibly rare: a proprietary dataset from 25 million real guest interactions that gives them an insurmountable advantage in understanding how people actually communicate with restaurants. Customer satisfaction at 95%+ is almost unheard of in enterprise software - these operators genuinely love the product. When you combine that kind of data moat with deeply delighted customers, you're looking at a category-defining company."
What's Next
Slang AI will use its Series B funding to deepen its AI capabilities, build multi-modal experiences that extend beyond voice, and expand into new areas of the guest journey – from personalized recommendations to post-visit follow-up and reviews – that drive measurable revenue and engagement for hospitality operators.
The company also intends to expand its engineering, product, and go-to-market teams to meet surging demand while scaling its partnership ecosystem to create an even more seamless experience for operators.
Sambvani concluded, "This funding round will empower us to make the Slang platform even more personal, more proactive, and more intelligent. It will remember even more about guests' history and preferences, and bring them back through thoughtful, one-to-one outreach. And it will give operators real-time insight into both guest experience and team performance, so issues surface early and service keeps getting better. We're thrilled to accelerate the expansion of our platform, and look forward to driving even greater value for our customers and investors."
About Slang AI
Founded in 2019 by Alex Sambvani and Gabe Duncan, Slang AI is the first and leading AI platform purpose-built for the hospitality industry. Slang AI's superhost answers every call with precision, warmth, and professionalism, booking reservations, handling inquiries, routing high-value requests, and recognizing returning guests, so restaurant staff can stay fully present with the guests in front of them. Serving 2,000+ restaurant locations globally with 95%+ guest satisfaction, Slang AI integrates with leading platforms including OpenTable, SevenRooms, Tripleseat, and Yelp. For more information, visit slang.ai.
About USVP
U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) is a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm, partnering with entrepreneurs to transform their ideas into world-changing companies. USVP has invested in over 500 companies spanning four decades, including: Arkose Labs, Box, Carlsmed, Carrot, Cato Networks, Edgewise, Epsagon, Happy Returns, Heartflow, HotelTonight, Human Interest, Inari Medical, Inspire Medical Systems, Intersect ENT, Kenna, Medigate, Omada Health, Pluto TV, Primary, Supplyframe, Standard Bariatrics, ThreatMetrix, Trunk Club, Trusteer and Yammer. USVP focuses on early-stage start-ups that transform cybersecurity, enterprise software, consumer and healthcare. The USVP team consists of former entrepreneurs, technologists, corporate executives, and financial professionals who assist with strategy, scaling, team building, product development, and business development. USVP is based in Menlo Park, California.
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SOURCE Slang AI
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