Pie launches with $19.5M to bring AI marketing to small businesses
Pie Tech Inc., a startup using artificial intelligence to provide growth tools for small businesses, today officially launched with an announcement that it has raised $19.5 million in new funding to expand its platform and team.
The company used the announcement to launch Front Desk, an AI service that picks up the phone for small business owners at any hour, books reservations and answers customer questions. Front Desk joins two products Pie already sells, AI Search and Growth, in what the company bills as a growth infrastructure layer for local merchants.
Pie comes from Syed Ali and Akhil Mantripragada, who built products at Square and Toast Inc. before starting the company. Ali and Mantripragada say they heard the same complaint over and over from owners. The owners had plenty of software but not a steady flow of new customers. Pie’s founders say most local shops cannot afford enterprise marketing tools and get little value from agencies, which can run $2,500 to $5,000 a month and lock merchants into long contracts.
Pie’s answer is a set of three tools that span the whole arc from getting noticed to closing the sale. AI Search works to get merchants mentioned inside tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity. Growth handles ad campaigns on Google Maps, Yelp and Nextdoor. Front Desk then answers the calls and books the appointments those campaigns drive.
