Trust issues solved NYK bets on Anushka Sen for real travel finds

MUMBAI: In an internet crowded with five-star fatigue, Nowyouknow is choosing friends over filters. The social-led travel and food discovery platform, better known as NYK, has roped in actor, singer and digital creator Anushka Sen as its brand ambassador and not just the poster face kind.

Founded by siblings Krishna and Pia Shivdasani, NYK is pitching itself as an antidote to algorithm-heavy discovery, where recommendations come not from strangers, but from people you actually trust. Think personal networks, shared taste and a carefully chosen set of creators, rather than anonymous ratings shouting into the void.

The timing is deliberate. As online discovery scales noisily, younger users are circling back to smaller, more credible signals, the café a friend bookmarked, the street food a creator genuinely revisits, the neighbourhood that made it into someone’s private notes. Sen’s content sits squarely in that lane. From cafés in Seoul and European backstreets to Indian street food joints, her recommendations are built on lived experience rather than viral intent.

That alignment runs deeper than a campaign brief. Sen has taken an equity stake in NYK, signalling a longer-term belief in its model. Her own habits maintaining personal lists, saving places and sharing notes within her circle mirror the behaviour NYK is trying to organise into one platform. Her food content, ranging from ramen experiments to casual cooking diaries, further strengthens the credibility play the app is making.

NYK’s founders argue that discovery today is scattered across Whatsapp chats, screenshots, bookmarks and half-remembered Reels. The platform aims to pull that chaos into a single space powered by what it calls a “taste graph” recommendations shaped by your circle and the creators you consciously choose to follow.

In a market as diverse as India, the company is making a pointed argument: a single aggregated score cannot capture personal preference. What matters is context who is recommending, and why you trust them.

With Sen on board, NYK is sharpening its core message. In a world run by algorithms, the most valuable recommendation still comes from someone you know or at least someone whose taste feels familiar.