Harmonyze Raises $2M to Revolutionize Franchise Management with Automation

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Franchising is a robust progress technique for companies searching for fast enlargement with out bearing the total burden of capital funding and operational prices. Nevertheless, managing franchises comes with complicated challenges that demand a fragile stability between management and suppleness. Harmonyze permits franchisors to function profitable franchise networks with AI brokers. The platform automates and centralizes each authorized and operational compliance and monitoring and reporting, whereas facilitating coordinated know-how deployment throughout the franchise community, permitting for fast experimentation. For quickly scaling franchisors, sustaining model consistency and high quality throughout a number of places is essential. Harmonyze helps guarantee prospects have a constant expertise aligned with model requirements. By automating operational duties throughout the franchise community, the platform not solely generates price financial savings for each franchisors and franchisees but in addition frees up franchisors to concentrate on strategic, revenue-generating initiatives.

AlleyWatch caught up with Harmonyze CEO and Cofounder Gary Liskovich to be taught extra concerning the enterprise, the corporate’s strategic plans, current spherical of funding, and far, way more…

Who had been your traders and the way a lot did you increase?Harmonyze profitable closed greater than $2M in pre-seed funding. The spherical was led by Bowery Capital, with significant participation from Focal.VC, in addition to particular person traders that embrace CXOs at franchisors, AI corporations, and personal fairness companies.

Inform us concerning the services or products that Harmonyze gives.Harmonyze makes it simpler for franchisors to run distinctive and worthwhile companies. Utilizing AI brokers, Harmonyze automates operational and compliance duties, centralizes network-wide monitoring and reporting, and allows fast two-way innovation between franchisor and franchisee. This progressive resolution not solely drives down prices for franchisors, but in addition frees up their groups to concentrate on strategic, revenue-generating actions, in the end enhancing margins.

What impressed the beginning of Harmonyze?My cofounder, Jonny Greenspan, and I grew up in Brooklyn collectively, the place Jonny’s dad was a franchisee. We didn’t understand it on the time, however this expertise began to form our information of the franchise {industry}, which might ultimately encourage Harmonyze. After Jonny and I graduated school and independently labored at quite a few know-how startups, we began to mess around with constructing AI for authorized and compliance-related issues. As we analyzed which industries would profit most from this resolution, we remembered Jonny’s dad’s franchising expertise. Scaled franchise networks are extremely complicated and generate a formidable quantity of unstructured information — the proper surroundings for AI to unlock worth. Over the previous 12 months we’ve carried out in depth discovery with franchisors and the response and preliminary business traction has been overwhelmingly thrilling. How is Harmonyze totally different?Harmonyze is an AI-first firm led by skilled technologists and purpose-built for franchisors’ operations, from coordinating compliance duties to staying on prime of assorted laws. Our AI brokers interpret the huge quantities of unstructured information that circulation via franchise networks after which automate 1000’s of in any other case guide processes. After growing an in depth understanding of a franchisor’s enterprise (Edible Preparations is kind of totally different than the UPS Retailer franchise, for instance), we deploy the precise set of AI brokers to a safe, non-public cloud. Right here, these brokers full and coordinate duties between one another through a proprietary framework we developed particularly to replicate the way in which data is handed all through franchise methods.

What market does Harmonyze goal and the way massive is it?Harmonyze is purpose-built for franchisors — a significant sector of the economic system, however one which has lengthy been underserved by know-how startups. Populars manufacturers like Orange Idea, ACE {Hardware}, the UPS Retailer, and nearly each fast service restaurant function franchise fashions. By 2028, the franchise market is forecasted to succeed in roughly $5 trillion globally, representing a ten.41% CAGR from 2023 to 2028. The operations leaders that run these franchise networks are charged with coordinating 1000’s of duties throughout numerous places, usually on the expense of vital strategic work that elevates the model. Harmonyze’s AI is purpose-built for franchisors, and helps them considerably streamline and simplify the complexities of operating profitable companies.

What’s your corporation mannequin?Harmonzye is a subscription mannequin with pricing dependent upon the dimensions of a franchisor’s community.

How are you making ready for a possible financial slowdown?The franchise {industry} is powerful and rising quickly world wide. An financial slowdown, nevertheless, would drive franchisors to do much more to help their franchisees, additional burdening their groups consequently. Harmonyze is thoughtfully designed to automate 1000’s of in any other case guide duties, saving prices whereas liberating up groups to concentrate on the sorts of strategic, revenue-generating actions which are particularly important throughout difficult durations.

What was the funding course of like?We had been very organized in our fundraising strategy, which resulted in a simple and fast course of total. I consider a part of our success was how we framed the franchisor-specific drawback after which defined why skilled technologists, versus industry-specific veterans, had been the perfect to resolve it utilizing AI.

What are the largest challenges that you just confronted whereas elevating capital?Whereas everybody, together with VCs, store from and revel in franchise companies on a weekly, if not day by day, foundation, there’s not a deep understanding of their distinctive complexities. We needed to do quite a lot of educating in the course of the fundraising course of to beat this. Nevertheless, this additionally gave us an ideal alternative to display simply how effectively we understood the issue we had been fixing, which each and every VC needs to see. As an early-stage firm, we had been additionally constructing merchandise and onboarding new shoppers as we had been fundraising — doing each concurrently was difficult. Lastly, many VC groups are extremely distributed in the present day, which meant digital conferences had been the norm. Video calls have their advantages, however it’s not at all times straightforward to do a considerate chemistry verify just about. It was actually vital that we labored with the precise traders that will help us and our progress, so we had been in the end thrilled to associate with Bowery Capital and Focal.VC.

What elements about your corporation led your traders to jot down the verify?As soon as traders understood the complexities of the franchise {industry} and the way giant this sector of the economic system is, they had been energized by the chance for innovation. My co-founder and I are each extremely technical and have a confirmed monitor document of constructing AI merchandise for enterprise prospects, which instilled confidence within the traders that we had been the precise leaders to sort out this problem. And eventually, Jonny and I benefited from being greatest mates since center college — we had been in lock-step all through your complete course of.

As soon as traders understood the complexities of the franchise {industry} and the way giant this sector of the economic system is, they had been energized by the chance for innovation. My co-founder and I are each extremely technical and have a confirmed monitor document of constructing AI merchandise for enterprise prospects, which instilled confidence within the traders that we had been the precise leaders to sort out this problem. And eventually, Jonny and I benefited from being greatest mates since center college — we had been in lock-step all through your complete course of.

What are the milestones you intend to realize within the subsequent six months?

With our pre-seed spherical closed, we’re laser-focused on increasing the variety of franchisors we work with and deploying an order of magnitude extra AI brokers that clear up their issues.

What recommendation are you able to provide corporations in New York that would not have a contemporary injection of capital within the financial institution?Make investments the useful resource you do have — your time — in buyer discovery and striving for excellence. This prices nothing and can return dividends by shaping a priceless product and sharpening your pitch to traders.

The place do you see the corporate going within the close to time period?Our focus is on working intently with extra enterprise design companions and ambitiously growing new AI brokers that clear up their most urgent challenges. To help these objectives, we are going to proceed to develop our workforce with a concentrate on engineering and business roles.

What’s your favourite summer time vacation spot in and across the metropolis?Each Jonny and I grew up in South Brooklyn, so we love Coney Island! We extremely suggest stopping by Tottono’s Pizzeria and Nathan’s whenever you’re within the neighborhood.