Traveling Spoon operates an online marketplace that surfaces home-cooked dining experiences and cooking lessons hosted by local residents. The company personally vets 100% of its hosts and typically requires hosts to serve cooked vegetables rather than raw salads to manage health risks. Hosts set their own prices and Traveling Spoon applies a markup of roughly 18–35% to bookings. The platform is primarily aimed at tourists seeking meaningful, regionally authentic food experiences rather than regular meal delivery customers. The founders, Aashi Vel and Steph Lawrence, met at UC Berkeley’s school of business; Bay Area food figure Alice Waters serves as an advisor. The article notes that about 90% of the platform’s hosts are women and many are retired, earning supplementary income by hosting.

Total raised

$1M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Sep 2015