**Summary:** Nesto Software GmbH, a workforce management platform for restaurant groups based in Karlsruhe, has secured €11 million in growth equity from Expedition Growth Capital. This marks the first institutional funding for the company, which was founded by engineers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Nesto’s platform handles scheduling, demand forecasting, HR workflows, and payroll for over 3,000 restaurant locations across Europe. The funds will be used for product development, expanding sales and marketing, and enhancing NORA, Nesto’s AI assistant, into a comprehensive agent framework for back-office tasks.
**Built without Institutional Funding:**
Nesto, founded by Felix Kaiser and Dr. Theodor Ackbarow, grew without external funding to over 3,000 locations. Expedition Growth Capital targets bootstrap European software businesses with more than €5 million in annual recurring revenue. Expedition’s recently closed $375 million fund invests in software companies with proven product demand.
**The Labour Challenge:**
The hospitality sector faces complex workforce management issues. Nesto addresses this by offering solutions for producing compliant schedules, tracking attendance, and preparing payroll efficiently. Labour costs in the EU hospitality sector rose 11.2%, with AI adoption at about 6% in 2023. Nesto’s platform integrates with POS systems, supplier platforms, and payroll providers to generate forecasts and automate scheduling. Their technology reportedly improves labour productivity by 10%.
**NORA and the Agentic Layer:**
Nesto’s AI assistant, NORA, extends their platform’s capabilities. It operates on behalf of users to handle staffing rules, compliance, and administrative tasks autonomously. The investment will aid in developing NORA into a full agent framework to reduce managerial overhead.
**Funding in AI for Restaurants:**
Nesto is among several European hospitality tech firms securing funding in 2026. SOUS and Choice also received funding, targeting demand-generation and distribution layers, respectively. This reflects growth capital moving into the restaurant sector and the broader European technology ecosystem’s resilience and momentum.