Sona, an organization primarily based in London, has raised $45 million in a Collection B funding spherical led by N47. Current buyers Felicis, Northzone, Gradient, and Italian Founders Fund additionally took half, bringing Sona’s complete funding to over $100 million.
The corporate plans to make use of this new funding to broaden into the US and velocity up the event of its AI platform for industries reminiscent of hospitality, retail, healthcare, and logistics.
Sona is tackling a long-standing drawback in workforce administration. Whereas the worldwide marketplace for workforce administration software program is predicted to achieve $9.76 billion by 2026, many companies nonetheless use outdated programs. Corporations with shift staff at a number of places usually rely upon spreadsheets, handbook scheduling, and separate HR instruments.
Sona’s platform brings collectively scheduling, HR, payroll, compliance, and analytics. It makes use of real-time information reminiscent of bookings, income, climate, and shift historical past to make demand forecasts and staffing plans extra correct. This strategy replaces costly and infrequently inaccurate time-and-motion research.
Sona was based in 2021 by Steffen Wulff Petersen, Ben Dixon, and Oli Johnson. Its prospects embrace Popeyes and Tao Group. Sona’s latest product, Forge, lets companies construct customized inside software program on its predominant platform. With this, Sona goals to grow to be a core a part of enterprise operations as a substitute of simply providing a single resolution.
Workforce scheduling is a extremely aggressive area. The highest ten distributors, together with UKG, Ceridian’s Dayforce, Workday, Oracle, Deputy, and ADP, collectively management 55% of the global market. Sona stands out by providing a significant change as a substitute of simply small updates. Most established platforms have been constructed years in the past and at the moment are being up to date with AI, however they weren’t initially designed for it.
“Each different enterprise software program class has been reworked by AI, however the instruments managing the world’s largest workforce are nonetheless essentially the identical programs that have been constructed 20 years in the past. We had a ten-year plan. AI made it a one-year plan,” says Petersen.
The corporate is rising its presence in New York and plans to make use of its Collection B funding to spice up gross sales and construct enterprise partnerships in North America, competing immediately with Deputy and UKG.
Early adopters have seen generative AI copilots lower schedule creation time by as much as 70%. This places extra stress on older distributors and offers AI-focused firms like Sona an opportunity to win new enterprise prospects earlier than established companies catch up.
