London’s Twizoo launches restaurant recommendation app in 12 more US cities

Twizoo, a mobile app that helps users find the find the best restaurants and pubs near them, based on what people say on Twitter, is expanding to 12 cities in the US.

The London-based company was founded in February 2014 and uses an algorithm that analyses Twitter data, gathering information on credibility, sentiment, “buzz” and location in order to generate recommendations.

Madeline Parra, Twizoo’s CEO and co-founder, said the app is able to analyse data in real-time, so can provide up-to-date and highly relevant recommendations that are not impacted by fake reviews.

Having secured £1.2m in funding last year and currently well established in London and San Francisco, Twizoo is now expanding to Chicago, Las Vegas, Atlanta, New York, Boston) Seattle, Houston, Philadelphia, San Diego, Austin, LA and Miami at a rate of one city per week.

“Expansion into the US makes a lot of sense for us,” said Parra.

“It demonstrates just how scalable and cost effective our technology is. When launching into a new city, it’s really as simple as turning on a light switch for us,” she added.

The company plans to launch in other languages and countries in the future.

To date, Twizoo has raised £1.45m. The first round of £250,000 came in 2014, with Paul Forster, former CEO of Indeed, participating in the round. Last year’s round was led by Downing Ventures, with additional funds coming from EC1 Capital and Forster.