We are excited to announce our investment in Harmonyze, an AI-native platform for franchise network operations. We recently led a $2MM round of funding into the business and this investment was informed by the opportunity we see in the emerging wave of “back office” AI companies, which you can read more about here.
Who?
Harmonyze was founded by Gary Liskovich and Jonny Greenspan to use AI to address the complex network-wide operational challenges that franchised businesses face. Gary has deep experience in vertical AI from his time as a group product manager at EvolutionIQ and Jonny is an expert engineer with a first-hand understanding of what it takes to build an impactful engineering culture at an early-stage company. Fun fact - Gary and Jonny are also lifelong friends who grew up together in Brooklyn. From the moment they walked us through a demo of Harmonyze’s initial product, we were struck by the quality and thoughtfulness of what they were building. The more time we have spent with Gary and Jonny, the more impressed we have been by both of them and as they laid out their vision for revolutionizing franchise operations, we knew we had to be a part of it.
What?
Harmonyze is setting out to deploy AI agents throughout a franchisor’s operations enabling them to drive efficiency, compliance, and margin growth at scale. Franchisors (i.e., corporate HQ) and franchisees (i.e., the individual locations) face unique challenges around operational compliance, visibility, and synchronization which Harmonyze is setting out to solve. The need for headquarters to manage compliance across categories as varied as lease requirements, royalty remissions, insurance riders, local marketing spend, and day-to-day business practices is currently a difficult and highly manual process which Harmonyze is tackling head-on.
Why?
Franchises make up a large and growing part of the economy and far more national brands rely on a franchise model than would initially meet the eye. And franchising goes beyond the fast food and quick service restaurant concepts that are most associated with the business model, encompassing a whole host of other industries ranging from home/auto repair to real estate to fitness to convenience stores. Franchises have been woefully underserved in terms of modern software solutions tailored to their needs and with the advent of AI, what franchise-specific software is capable of has expanded beyond what was previously imagined. Emerging franchises and even well-established national brands all wrestle with operational and administrative complexities that distract them from their key priorities. With Harmonyze, franchisors and franchisees can stay in sync on autopilot - freeing both sides of the franchise business model to focus on what matters most. We are grateful to partner with Gary and Jonny and we are looking forward to the journey ahead.
Where?
Harmonyze is based in New York City.
