Who is the CEO of Palona?

Maria Zhang leads Palona as CEO. Former VP of Engineering at Google, VP/GM at Meta, CTO of Tinder

Where is Palona headquartered?

Palona is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA. The company has a team of 11-50 people.

Palona operates in the AI Agents sector. AI-powered sales and support agents for restaurants and DTC brands that embody a brand’s specific voice and personality to handle orders, reservations, and customer service across voice, text, and vision channels. Increases revenue through proactive, emotionally intelligent upselling ('pitch perfect' moments) and reduces operational overhead by integrating deep workflow automation (vision and action) rather than just surface-level chat.

When was Palona founded?

Palona was founded in 2024. It is based in Palo Alto, CA.

Who is the CEO of Palona?

Maria Zhang is the CEO of Palona. The company was founded in 2024.

Where is Palona located?

Palona is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA.

What funding stage is Palona at?

Palona is currently at the Commercial stage.

How many employees does Palona have?

Palona has approximately 11-50 employees.

Palona

Category: AI Agents

AI-powered sales and support agents for restaurants and DTC brands that embody a brand’s specific voice and personality to handle orders, reservations, and customer service across voice, text, and vision channels. Palona was founded in 2024. The company is led by Maria Zhang. Based in Palo Alto, CA. Team size: 11-50. Total funding raised: $10.0M. Latest round: Seed, $10.0M, 2025-01, led by UpHonest Capital. Key investors include UpHonest Capital, Fusion Fund, NEO Investment Partners, Maynard Webb.

Founded: 2024
Headquarters: Palo Alto, CA
Team size: 11-50
Total funding: $10.0M

Value proposition

Increases revenue through proactive, emotionally intelligent upselling ('pitch perfect' moments) and reduces operational overhead by integrating deep workflow automation (vision and action) rather than just surface-level chat.

Products and solutions

Voice AI Agent, AI Order Agent, AI Catering Manager, Vision & Workflow Features, Orchestration Layer

Unique value

Multi-sensory information pipeline processing vision (cameras), voice, and text in tandem to execute complex operational workflows like monitoring queue lengths or kitchen prep speed.

Target customer

Restaurants (QSR, Fast Casual, Chains), Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Retail Brands, Enterprise Customer Support

Industries served

Food & Beverage, Retail / E-commerce, Customer Service

Technology advantage

Proprietary 'Pitch Perfect' EQ logic for optimal upselling timing and a patent-pending orchestration layer managing multiple AI models and real-time data integrations.

How they differentiate

Differentiates via a 'multi-sensory' approach combining Vision, Voice, and Workflow automation (e.g., seeing line lengths) and a focus on EQ for upselling, whereas competitors primarily focus on voice/text handling.

Main competitors

Loman AI, Slang.ai, ConverseNow

Key partnerships

Goodcall, MOTO Pizza, POS and Reservation systems

Notable customers

Wyze, MINDZERO, MOTO Pizza

Major milestones

Secured $10M Seed funding led by UpHonest Capital in Jan 2025, Publicly launched 'Vision' and 'Workflow' features in Dec 2025, Strategic partnership with Goodcall

Growth metrics

Serves enterprise clients with 24/7 autonomous capacity; reported to enhance day-one sales conversions and cart size.

Market positioning

Vertical AI 'Operations Manager' for Restaurants & D2C

Geographic focus

North America

Patents and IP

Patent-pending orchestration layer

About Maria Zhang

Former VP of Engineering at Google, VP/GM at Meta, CTO of Tinder

Latest news about Palona

Palona AI launched Vision and Workflow to automate restaurant operations via real-time camera analysis and task execution. The startup replaced open-source memory tools that failed 30 percent of the t

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Official website: https://palona.ai/