Meet Tatiana Livesey and Diana Isac from Winerist – our Startup of the Week
Welcome to the second episode in the Elevator Pitch series 3.
Every week we’ll publish a 30 second pitch from 12 leading startups from across London. In this series we took the founders to the top of 40 Bank Street in the heart of Canary Wharf for the most exciting pitch of their lives.
Tatiana and Diana are passionate about three things – food, wine and travel. As they attempted to combine their loves, they discovered it was incredibly difficult to find exactly what they were looking for.
They often found themselves trawling through 20 or 30 websites to find the right wine tour or holiday for them, and decided to do something about it – Winerist was born.
Everything you need in one place
Winerist is a guide to the world’s winemaking regions and a free online booking service.
Tatiana believes that the wine and food travel market had been fragmented and explains:
Wine and food travellers will never have to browse multiple websites again. With Winerist you can find and book it all in one place.
The business model is simple; they connect travellers with the experience provider and take commission for every booking performed through the site.
Independent and authentic advice
Winerist is much more than just a booking platform though.
The website provides advice from local experts, wine guides, and connoisseurs from wine regions all around the world.
Diana explains that it is a system that benefits everyone:
Winerist puts the tourists in touch with the locals, thus solving a problem for both the discerning traveller looking for authentic wine & food experiences and the local guides and wineries in need of customers
The two childhood friends from Moldova are even experts themselves for their home country, providing insights into the nation’s wine and culture.
Building for the future
Winerist recently closed a seed funding round from a group of undisclosed investors including the founder of Booking.com.
They say that these angel investors do not only bring the funds to develops the website’s online booking platform and make key hires, but also bring important industry knowledge on how to best build the business.
The next step? Increasing their number of partners to become the one-stop site for everyone’s wine travel needs.
Check back next Tuesday for the next episode of the Elevator Pitch