Ambl

Who are you and what is Ambl?

I’m Aaron Solomon, co-founder and CEO of Ambl. We help people discover and reserve great restaurants, bars and experiences without spending ages searching different apps, websites and booking systems.

Ambl brings live availability into one place across London and Dubai. People can describe what they need in natural language, whether that is a quiet client dinner or a lively cocktail bar. The app then finds relevant options they can reserve.

Was there one moment that started the idea?

My boss asked me to find a table for a group of us that evening. I searched every booking platform I could think of, called venues and still got nowhere. Eventually I said, “It can’t be this hard to book a table.”

That frustration exposed a bigger problem. Diners could not easily see where space was available and venues were losing revenue through cancellations, no-shows and unexpected quiet periods. The demand and the empty tables existed at the same time, yet there was no simple way to connect them.

What did you want Ambl to do?

The original idea was to let a diner broadcast what they needed to nearby venues. Restaurants and bars with real-time availability could respond, giving the customer somewhere suitable to go and helping the venue fill a table that may otherwise have stayed empty.

As we learned from customers and hospitality operators, the product grew into a broader reservation and discovery experience. Ambl now uses a conversational interface that learns what someone likes and helps them find the right venue for the occasion.

Where is Ambl today?

Ambl has raised about A$15 million across several rounds and expanded from London into Dubai. The app now covers restaurants, bars and other hospitality experiences across both cities, with live availability and personalised recommendations.

We were also named the London Hospitality and Events Startup of the Year in the UK Startup Awards. What began with me struggling to book one table has become an international platform helping people decide where to go and helping venues turn availability into real customers.