Palona AI 披露了2830万美元的融资，用于推动餐厅自动化

Why it matters

Palona has paired a veteran founding team with $38.3 million in disclosed capital and a focused restaurant strategy, testing whether conversational AI can drive measurable revenue in physical businesses.

Palona AI, founded by Maria Zhang (@MariaRenhui), Tim Howes and Xue "Steve" Liu, filed its first SEC Form D on August 4th, disclosing a $28.3 million equity offering marked fully sold.

该公司在8月4日提交了首份 SEC Form D 报表，披露了一项已标注为全部售罄的 $28.3 million 股权发行。Palona 总部位于加州帕洛阿尔托，这份文件为其最新一轮融资给出了具体数字。该公司正在从面向对话的销售代理扩展到处理订单并监控餐厅运营的软件。Form D 是向 SEC 提交的一种通知，适用于免于全面注册要求的证券发行。

此轮融资使 Palona 公开披露的融资总额达到 $38.3 million。Palona 在 2025 年 1 月宣布了 $10 million seed round，投资者包括 UpHonest Capital、Fusion Fund、NEO Investment Partners、Maynard Webb 以及其他支持者。

Palona 的创始团队为这家成立两年的开发者配备了异常资深的领导层。Zhang 之前在 Google、Meta、Tinder、Yahoo 和 LinkedIn 担任工程与 AI 领导职务。她还创办了本地推荐应用 Alike，Yahoo 于 2013 年收购了该公司。

Howes 在 University of Michigan 时共同发明了 Lightweight Directory Access Protocol（LDAP）。他后来与 Marc Andreessen、Ben Horowitz 和 In Sik Rhee 共同创立了 Loudcloud 和 Opsware。HP 在 2007 年以 16.5 亿美元收购了 Opsware。Howes 还共同创立了 RockMelt，Yahoo 于 2013 年收购了该公司，之后他在 Meta 从事 AI 基础设施相关工作。

Liu 是 McGill University 的计算机科学教授、Mila 的副学术成员以及前 Samsung AI Center Montreal 和 Tinder 的首席科学家。他的研究涵盖机器学习、分布式系统、网络和嵌入式计算。

From sales agents to restaurant operations

Palona launched publicly in January 2025 with emotionally responsive AI sales agents for direct-to-consumer and other consumer-facing brands. The software ingested product catalogs and customer-support material, then answered questions, recommended products, remembered preferences and attempted to increase order values through upselling.

Palona 于 2025 年 1 月对外发布，推出了面向直销和其他面向消费者品牌的情感响应型 AI 销售代理。该软件导入产品目录和客户支持资料，随后回答问题、推荐产品、记住偏好，并通过追加销售尝试提高订单金额。

Early deployments included smart-home device maker Wyze, wellness business MindZero and Pizza My Heart. For the pizza chain, Palona built a voice and text agent around the brand's "Jimmy the Surfer" character, allowing customers to place orders while preserving the chain's established tone.

早期部署包括智能家居设备制造商 Wyze、健康业务 MindZero 和 Pizza My Heart。针对这家披萨连锁，Palona 围绕品牌角色 "Jimmy the Surfer" 构建了语音与文本代理，让顾客在下单时仍能保留连锁既有的语气与风格。

Palona has since narrowed its commercial focus. Its current website describes Palona as an "AI operating layer" for physical businesses, with restaurants serving as its first proving ground. Palona now markets Voice AI, Catering AI and Vision AI, covering incoming calls, food orders, catering leads and video-based monitoring of restaurant operations.

此后 Palona 缩小了其商业重点。其当前网站将 Palona 描述为面向实体业务的“AI operating layer”，并以餐厅作为首个试验场。Palona 现在推广 Voice AI, Catering AI and Vision AI，涵盖来电处理、食品订单、餐饮询单线索以及基于视频的餐厅运营监控。

That shift moves Palona into a harder deployment category than web-based customer service. Restaurant systems must handle background noise, menu modifiers, changing availability, loyalty programs, point-of-sale integrations and customers who expect orders to be correct on the first attempt. Palona says its systems exceed 98% order accuracy, a figure based on Palona's own benchmarking and continuous testing.

这一转变将 Palona 推入了比基于网页的客户服务更具挑战的部署类别。餐厅系统必须应对背景噪音、菜单修饰项、库存或供应变化、忠诚度计划、与收银系统的集成，以及期望首次下单就正确无误的顾客。Palona 表示其系统的订单准确率超过 98%，该数字基于 Palona 自身的基准测试和持续测试。

The restaurant focus also gives Palona a clearer business case. Missed calls, abandoned catering inquiries and incorrect orders can be tied directly to lost revenue or operating costs. Palona is selling software against those measurable failures rather than asking operators to adopt a general-purpose chatbot.

以餐厅为重点也为 Palona 提供了更清晰的商业案例。未接来电、被放弃的餐饮询单以及错误订单都可以直接与收入损失或运营成本挂钩。Palona 正在出售针对这些可衡量失败的解决方案，而不是要求运营方采用通用型聊天机器人。

A veteran team takes a vertical bet

Zhang's founding thesis has centered on preserving personalized customer relationships as businesses grow. The restaurant strategy turns that idea into a vertical product with repeatable workflows, integrations and operating data.

Zhang 的创业主张始终围绕在企业扩张时保持个性化客户关系。将这一思路落到餐厅领域，使其成为一个包含可复制工作流、集成和运营数据的垂直产品。

Howes had invested in and advised Palona before joining as CTO. Zhang recruited him after previously working for Howes at Yahoo following the Alike acquisition. In Palona's September 2025 announcement of his appointment, Zhang described Howes as a longtime mentor who had pushed her toward senior executive roles before she believed she was ready for them.

Howes 在加入担任 CTO 之前曾对 Palona 进行投资并提供咨询。Zhang 在 Alike 被收购后曾在 Yahoo 为 Howes 工作，之后又招募他加入 Palona。Palona 在 2025 年 9 月宣布他出任 CTO 时，Zhang 将 Howes 描述为长期的导师，在她认为自己尚未准备好之前曾推动她走向高级管理岗位。

The $28.3 million offering gives the founders a substantially larger capital base for that vertical expansion. Palona must now show that emotionally responsive agents can produce consistent results during live restaurant operations, where a polished conversation matters less than whether the order reaches the kitchen correctly and the customer receives what they requested.

这笔 $28.3 million 的发行为创始团队在该垂直领域扩张提供了更为雄厚的资本基础。Palona 现在必须证明情感响应型代理在实际餐厅运营中能够产生稳定的效果——在现场运营中，流畅的对话不如订单是否准确送达厨房以及顾客是否收到其所点之物来得重要。