Harmonyze, formerly known as Legal Hat, an AI-first platform designed to increase franchisor’s profit margins, announced the successful close of more than $2 million in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Bowery Capital, with meaningful participation from Focal.VC, as well as individual investors that include CXOs at franchisors, AI companies, and private equity firms. This funding milestone is recognition of both the significant value Harmonyze’s AI technology can create for franchisors, and the company’s strong commercial growth.
Franchises are an essential part of the global economy. By 2028, the franchise market is forecasted to reach approximately $5 trillion, representing a 10.41% CAGR from 2023 to 2028. Harmonyze is specifically built to support this important sector by boosting overall profit margins through operational cost reductions and improved same store sales.
Harmonyze uses AI agents to centralize and automate operational and legal compliance, monitoring and reporting, and rapid two-way experimentation across scaled franchise networks. By reducing a franchisor’s team’s manual compliance-focused tasks, Harmonyze increases their bandwidth for high-value, strategic work, such as investing in closer relationships with franchisees, building the overall brand, and developing new intellectual property.
“Operations leaders running franchise networks at scale are charged with coordinating thousands of tasks across countless locations, often at the expense of important strategic work that elevates the brand,” said Gary Liskovich, CEO and Co-founder of Harmonyze. “By developing AI agents purpose-built for franchisors, we’ve been able to significantly streamline and simplify this complexity. I’m thrilled to continue developing cutting-edge solutions for franchisors that make them more profitable, unlock strategic bandwidth, and boost store sales.”
In its first year, Harmonyze has already seen impressive commercial interest. The Picklr, the fastest-growing indoor pickleball franchise in the world, is one such customer that relies on Harmonyze to refocus its team on more strategic growth initiatives that contribute to revenue growth across its network. Harmonyze’s AI understands all of The Picklr’s franchisees’ contractual obligations and tracks for completedness, fully automating more than 200 compliance and legal tasks and increasing team bandwidth by over 10%.
Jonathan Fornaci, President and Chief Operating Officer at The Picklr, said, “Harmonyze helps my team be more efficient and focus on strategic work. It has enabled us to get ahead of countless risks, and will save us millions in the next few years.”
Harmonyze is led by Gary Liskovich, CEO and Co-founder, and Jonny Greenspan, CTO and Co-founder. Childhood friends who grew up in Brooklyn, Gary and Jonny have spent the last 10 years building AI products and leading teams at enterprise companies, including Deloitte and Salesforce, as well as at high-growth startups, including SmartAsset, EvolutionIQ, QuickFrame (acquired by MNTN), and Eskalera. The founders are active advisors to the Titus Center for Franchising, members of the International Franchise Association, and trusted partners of the Franchise Supplier Network.
With this new injection of capital, the Harmonyze founders will accelerate the development and deployment of its AI-first solution, further expand its market reach, and hire several key roles across the engineering and commercial teams.
SOURCE: PRNewsWire