Vacati raised angel funding from Karan P. Gupta to build a domain-specific LLM
The start-up is developing a specialized hospitality-focused LLM to provide pairing intelligence
Vacati's "intra-category" engine suggests pairings across six domains: food, wine, spirits, cocktails, coffee/tea, and cigars
AI-driven food and beverage intelligence platform Vacati has raised angel funding in a recent round to accelerate the development of its proprietary hospitality-focused AI and expand its product ecosystem.
The funding round saw participation from angel investor Karan P. Gupta. The newly raised capital will be used to develop a sophisticated, domain-specific large language model (LLM) tailored for hospitality, food, and beverage applications, as well as to launch Vacati’s consumer-facing application on the App Store.
1 April 2026
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A portion of the capital, including an allocation of ₹10 lakh, will also be used to train the company’s domain-specific LLM.
Founded by hospitality professional Ravi Shukla, Vacati was conceived to address a long-standing gap in the industry: the limited access to structured, actionable knowledge despite deep domain expertise.
The platform helps both consumers and hospitality professionals make smarter, more confident food and beverage decisions through real-time pairing intelligence and guided learning.
For consumers, Vacati offers intuitive pairing recommendations that help users understand what works, why it works, and what to explore next. For hospitality businesses, the platform’s training tool serves as its first major in-app product, designed specifically for restaurants and hotels to train their teams.
Built around micro-topics, it is intended to boost staff confidence, refresh knowledge, and deliver more consistent and informed guest experiences.
Breaking away from conventional pairing norms, which are typically limited to food with wine or scotch with cigars, Vacati introduces a first-of-its-kind intra-category pairing engine.
The platform intelligently suggests pairings across six distinct domains: food, wines, spirits, cocktails, coffee, tea, and cigars. This allows users to explore combinations beyond traditional boundaries and discover more nuanced, elevated experiences.
Speaking about the funding, Ravi Shukla, Founder of Vacati, said the platform was built to address a fundamental gap in the industry by making knowledge more structured, accessible, and actionable. He added that the investment will help deepen the company’s AI capabilities and build a specialised LLM that understands the nuances of food, beverage, and hospitality at scale.
Currently in its first evolving version, Vacati is powered by a dedicated AI model trained on high-quality scientific studies and sensory research, ensuring that its recommendations are explainable, reliable, and rooted in expertise. Built with the industry, not just for it, Vacati aims to redefine how people learn, experience, and interact with food and beverage.
