An AI-native, gamified, marketplace for local leisure experiences.
Introducing - SwipeOnDeck (Curated Technologies Ltd.)
A gamified marketplace that helps Gen Z residents of (initially) London prompt, swipe and book local experiences in minutes. Planning a day out feels like work. There are way too many options, leading to choice paralysis and decision fatigue, too much effort coordinating with friends and too much time spent planning and researching.
How they solve this
- Prompt - Users type a natural-language request: “4 of us, rooftop drinks with a view of Thames, less than £30.”
- Swipe - Dextr, our AI scout generates a deck of experiences; users swipe with friends.
- Book - Discovery, planning and booking in under 10 minutes. Deck users get exclusive discounts from partners.
Every prompt shows which categories to prioritise, and every right-swipe shows which venues to onboard next. Think Tinder × Experiences for every leisure category - built by Gen Z for Gen Z.
Traction
- Launched beta iOS app in Mar’25 and tested with 100+ users
- Launched an iOS app last week of May’25
- 280+ users since launch (4 weeks) • 6,400+ swipes • 1,500 prompts generated by users
- Strong Supplier pipeline: Onboarded 3 partners (ChambVR, Bam Karaoke Box, GoBoat London) with a 10% commission per booking. In active talks with 10+ London experience providers. Focused on fast-monetising experiences aligned with user behaviour to build marketplace liquidity.
- User love: 50+ DM’d photos of experiences they booked through Deck.
- Go To Market Strategy: Activate the university ecosystem through on-campus marketing, student societies and social leaders (focusing on Post-grad communities with the plan to transition into the wider young working professionals’ segment in London).
- Finalists of Imperial’s IdeaForge incubator (top-6 of 400) and reached the final‑round interview at Antler Global - global, early-stage venture capital firm.
Website • Download the iOS app
Why Now
- Market shift: The global experiences economy excluding tourists is estimated to be worth over $2 trillion (McKinsey, 2024), with London residents alone spending ≈ $12 billion a year; and because half of those bookings happen online, which is our initial focus.
- Cultural shift: Spend on experiences grew 65% post-Covid, driven by Gen Z prioritising experiences over material buys.
- Behavioral shift: Gen Z pinball between TikTok, Instagram, Google and chats for ideas. Instant, visual, dopamine-fuelled discovery is now the norm.
- Technology: The AI moment enables semantic search with contextual hyper-personalisation. Effectively integrating rapidly improving models from providers such as Perplexity and OpenAI in the context of a marketplace can unlock unprecedented scale and value.
- Legacy platforms (Fever, Headout, DesignMyNight) are supply-first (showing only their paying partners), charge 20-30 % commissions, and are now trying to retrofit AI.
- Social (Instagram, Tiktok) & AI tools (Chatgpt) inspire but don’t transact or coordinate groups.
- Capability to capture demand signals first (prompts/swipes)
- Swipe-conditioned Gen Z crave shareable experiences but fragmented planning traps their ready-to-book demand. The winner unifies scattered inspiration into instant group bookings, unlocking loyalty, data, and serious market share.
Competition
Incumbent “things-to-do” platforms (Fever, Headout, DesignMyNight) were built for the past:
- They aggregate any supplier willing to accept a 20–30% commission into broad, overcrowded category pages, with little focus on curation or quality
- Discovery is still filter-and-scroll; coordination happens in WhatsApp; suppliers get little data back.
- Suppliers struggle with off-peak slots, repeat bookings, expensive take rates and lack of customer data.
- Marketplaces today struggle with loyalty. Our client aims to build sticky habits through gamification and embracing the new funnel
Founding Team
- Nameel Babu (CEO/CFO) & Isaac Thomas (CPO/CMO) - Cofounders, Ex-KPMG & Ex-Ogilvy, two prior side-hustle ventures together.
- Ashwin Sridhar (CTO) – Imperial College MSc
- Askar Sulaimanov (AI/ML Lead) – Machine Learning Institute
The Ask
The team are now seeking investing Non-Executive Directors to help shape their strategic direction, open doors to key networks, and accelerate their journey to become the leading solution in AI-native, gamified, marketplace. You would be available to provide your expertise and knowledge to the team for 2-3 days per month.
Investment: £25k to £50k each (SEIS/EIS).
Time: 2 to 3 days/month, initially unpaid, with the possibility of additional equity linked to performance objectives / achievements
Milestones (next 12 months)
- Booking layer live & agentic supplier dashboard (3 mo) → in-app checkout, 10 to 20% take-rate.
- 500 London suppliers onboarded (6 mo).
- 10k bookings / 2k MAUs (10 mo).
- Gamification & AI - loyalty streaks, spin-the-wheel promos, deeper personalisation.
Ready to find out more? Please reach out to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to express your interest.
