Company: Pie
Co-Founders: Syed Ali and Akhil Mantripragada
Website: https://getpie.com/
About Pie
Pie is the New York-based AI-powered growth platform for small businesses. Through Growth, AI Search and Front Desk, Pie helps local merchants get discovered, bring in more customers and convert demand into calls, bookings and revenue across the channels where customers are already looking.
Founded in 2025 by former Square and Toast operators Syed Ali and Akhil Mantripragada who collectively spent 15 years building for small businesses, Pie was built around a problem they heard repeatedly from small-business owners: they did not need another dashboard or another tool to manage. They needed more customers. Local discovery has since become more fragmented across Google, Maps, Yelp, AI search and other digital channels, while many owners lack the time, budget or expertise to manage them. Pie brings these growth capabilities together in one practical platform that works in the background and ties activity directly to outcomes owners understand, like sales YoY growth and phone calls answered.
Pie has three connected offerings. AI Search helps businesses improve visibility as customers increasingly use AI-powered search experiences. Growth helps merchants acquire customers across high-intent local channels like Google Maps, Yelp, and Nextdoor. Front Desk uses an AI voice agent to answer calls, take bookings and respond to customer questions 24/7. Together, the products help businesses capture demand that might otherwise be missed and turn customer interest into more appointments and more opportunities for revenue.
Pie overcame the challenge of building for a large but underserved market where small businesses are difficult to reach and often priced out of sophisticated growth solutions. While in stealth, Pie reached roughly 2,000 small-business customers largely through referrals and platform partnerships, drove more than 140,000 phone calls to client businesses, and saw customers achieve typical 15% to 20% year-over-year sales growth. Pie also emerged from stealth with $23.7 million in total funding, including a $19.5 million Series A led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, and most recently announced an investment from Amex Ventures to support expansion.
Pie is contributing to the US ecosystem by helping the small businesses that power local economies access practical AI capabilities without needing a large team or technical expertise. The company developed a distribution model that combines direct relationships with partnerships through vertical software platforms already serving local operators. Its platform supports merchants across categories including auto repair, pet care, fitness and beauty, helping them compete as the way customers search, choose, and book with local businesses has been changing. As Pie expands its products, platform partnerships and team, it is using AI as a lever to make modern growth tactics more accessible to Main Street businesses across the country.
Want to find out what TechRound can do for your business?
