Paddy, an ambitious new startup aiming to redefine how people connect over food, has successfully raised $1,168,275 in pre-seed funding. Founded by Matty Frommann, Lukas Portmann, and Tobias Schröder, Paddy is blending hospitality, technology, and community to create a new kind of social dining platform.

This round of funding will accelerate Paddy’s product development, grow its team, and expand its reach into key urban markets hungry for more authentic and interactive dining experiences.

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What Paddy Brings to the Table

At its core, Paddy is about transforming meals from simple consumption into meaningful social events. The platform is designed to connect people through curated, shared dining experiences - whether that’s bringing strangers together for themed dinners, facilitating pop-up culinary events, or matching food lovers with local chefs and hosts.

The vision is simple but powerful: in a world where digital connection is instant yet often shallow, Paddy aims to make real-world connections richer and more accessible. Its platform will allow users to:

• Discover unique dining events in their city.
  
• Join small, intimate gatherings hosted by vetted chefs or passionate foodies.
  
• Connect with like-minded people over shared culinary interests.
  
• Book and pay seamlessly through the Paddy app.
  

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Why It Matters Now

The social dining market is rapidly expanding, driven by a younger generation that values experiences over material goods. The global foodservice market is projected to grow from $2.6 trillion in 2024 to over $4.4 trillion by 2030, with a significant share coming from experience-driven dining. Meanwhile, experiential hospitality - including supper clubs, chef’s tables, and pop-up dining - has been growing at 12%+ annually in urban hotspots.

Post-pandemic, diners aren’t just seeking good food - they want meaningful human connection. That shift creates fertile ground for platforms like Paddy to thrive.

And here’s where a lot of founders miss a trick: success in lifestyle tech isn’t about digitizing an activity - it’s about amplifying it. If you build something that simply moves an offline process online, you’re just swapping paper for pixels. But if your product enriches the experience so much that it becomes the preferred way to engage, you’ve built something sticky. Paddy’s model doesn’t replace restaurants; it makes dining out more memorable, more discoverable, and more personal. That’s the sweet spot - positioning yourself as an enhancement to existing habits rather than a replacement. Enhancers win faster adoption, face less resistance, and become embedded in the culture they serve.

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Competitive Advantage

While there are existing platforms for restaurant reservations and food delivery, Paddy operates in a white space between social networking, event discovery, and culinary experience. Its competitive edges include:

1. Niche Focus – Targeting curated, high-quality events instead of mass restaurant bookings.
   
2. Community-Driven Model – Building repeat engagement by connecting guests with hosts and other diners they want to see again.
   
3. Scalability Without Heavy Infrastructure – No need to own venues, allowing for rapid multi-city expansion.
   

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Backers of the Round

The pre-seed raise was fueled by investors who believe in the power of experience-based platforms to reshape urban social life. While the round’s investors have not been fully disclosed, the founders have hinted at strategic backers with expertise in hospitality tech, consumer marketplaces, and event platforms.

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Industry Trends Fueling Growth

• Experience Economy Surge – Millennials and Gen Z are prioritizing experiences over possessions.
  
• Rise of Supper Clubs & Private Dining – Exclusive, small-group dining formats are seeing high demand in global cities.
  
• Digital-to-Physical Crossover – Social platforms that drive offline engagement see stronger loyalty and monetization.
  

According to a 2024 urban hospitality survey, 78% of millennials said they would attend more curated dining events if discovery and booking were easier - exactly the gap Paddy aims to close.

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What’s Next for Paddy

With its pre-seed funding, Paddy plans to:

• Expand to new cities beyond its early launch markets.
  
• Enhance its app with AI-driven personalization and recommendations.
  
• Grow its host network to include more chefs, restaurants, and culinary creatives.
  
• Boost brand awareness through targeted campaigns aimed at urban professionals and food lovers.
  

The team is also exploring corporate partnerships, offering unique team-building dining experiences to companies seeking creative employee engagement.

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Long-Term Vision

Paddy’s ambition is to become the go-to platform for shared dining worldwide - where locals and travelers alike can instantly find unique food experiences wherever they are. By owning the community layer, Paddy can build loyalty in ways traditional reservation platforms struggle to achieve.

The ultimate goal: make eating together as effortless to arrange as ordering delivery, but with an experience that’s infinitely richer.

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