Beli

Series ARaised Since Featured

Your favorite restaurants, ranked

Social restaurant ranking app where users rank restaurants, track dining experiences, and discover new spots through friends' recommendations.

Founded January 2021New York, NY~10 people~$12M raisedFeatured at Pre-Seed

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ConsumerSocialFood TechRestaurant DiscoveryMobile AppGen ZRecommendations

About

Beli is a social food ranking app that reimagines restaurant discovery by prioritizing friends' opinions over anonymous reviews. Users rank restaurants they visit, building personalized lists and maps of everywhere they've been and want to try. The app calculates prediction scores based on a user's ranking history and their friends' preferences, creating a trusted recommendation engine that gets smarter with use. Founded by Harvard Business School graduates Judy Thelen and Eliot Frost — who met at their first job out of college and built their relationship around trying restaurants in NYC — Beli has grown to over 75 million global reviews across 30,000 cities. Named to Forbes Cloud 100 Rising Stars in 2025, Beli has become the go-to restaurant app for Gen Z, with 80% of users under 35 and most joining through referrals.

DailyDropout Take

Beli stood out as the anti-Yelp — a restaurant app that actually works because it's built on trust, not anonymous reviews. The Harvard Business School founders nailed a simple insight: people trust their friends' food opinions more than strangers'. With 75M+ reviews and Forbes Cloud 100 recognition, Beli has proven that social-first discovery can outgrow legacy review platforms.

Discovery signal: Organic viral growth through friend referrals, Harvard Business School founding team, strong Gen Z adoption in NYC expanding nationally

What Makes Them Unique

Beli replaces anonymous stranger reviews with a friends-first ranking system that gamifies restaurant discovery — creating a trusted, personalized recommendation engine that gets smarter the more you and your friends use it.

75M+

Total Reviews

30,000+

Cities

80%

Users Under 35

~$12M

Total Raised

Target Markets

Gen Z FoodiesUrban DinersRestaurant Discovery

Founders

Judy Thelen

Co-Founder & CEO

Harvard Business School graduate and former McKinsey consultant. Built Beli out of a personal frustration with unreliable restaurant reviews while exploring NYC's dining scene.

Eliot Frost

Co-Founder & CTO

Harvard Business School graduate and engineer. Met Judy at their first job out of college; together they developed Beli's ranking algorithm and social recommendation engine.