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For some business , there is a clear itinerary to growth that does n’t take acquiring other companies or blow up organically : franchising . The U.S. has more than800,000 enfranchisement business , fit in to Statista , and that number is promise to keep grow year over yr . But franchise a commercial enterprise — certify a occupation model and brand to an extraneous operator — require a mickle of contract , legal conformity and support , which all serve to further complicate an already involved stage business model .
Brooklyn - basedHarmonyzewants to help franchisors keep raceway of it all using AI , and it has just raise a $ 2 million pre - seed one shot direct by Bowery Capital to further build out its AI agents .
The startup ’s customs AI agents sit in a private cloud database between the franchisor and the franchisees . These agents can sing to each other and perform over 200 task like ensuring a enfranchisement has paid a intersection vender right or that a enfranchisement is up to date on insurance replenishment . This helps franchisors ensure that they , and their franchisees , are stick compliant — franchising is a to a great extent mold manufacture . Another major welfare is they do n’t have to expend as much time on such administrative tasks .
The company was started in 2023 by puerility friends Gary Liskovich , CEO , a former Cartesian product managing director at startups like EvolutionIQ and SmartAsset , and Jonny Greenspan , CTO , a former engineer at party like Salesforce . Liskovich told TechCrunch they dabbled in formulate a product for the effectual blank , but decided on franchising because of how untapped the market was , and because they had a personal connexion : Greenspan ’s pa owned a Totonno ’s pizza franchise emplacement .
“ Franchising is this thing that everybody make out the word , but most people have n’t done a lot of digging ; it makes up 10 % of U.S. business , ” Liskovich said . “ We started look at the franchising place — it ’s an unbelievable amount of amorphous data , which we really think AI can unlock and translate into something that is usable . ”
Harmonyze exited stealth in early 2024 , and requirement from franchisors has been strong ever since , Liskovich order . He add that despite requirement , Harmonyze is choosing to puzzle out with a select radical of customers at first so they can continue to get feedback and iterate on the intersection and its lineament .
Liskovich say the company plans to put most of the cap from the pre - seed stave toward take so they can continue to build out the mathematical product . The rung saw involution from Focal . VC and legion person from the dealership manufacture .
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Harmonyze decided to focus on building for , and betray to , the franchisor , as opposed to the franchisee , because the franchisor deals with importantly more unstructured data , which makes their job angle well toward an AI solution , Liskovich said . He hop Harmonyze will also be able-bodied to facilitate franchisors spot fresh business practices at franchisees that can be wind out to everyone .
“ Franchisees are very known for innovating and are people that are tweaking the system of rules , ” Liskovich said . “ Very famously , [ McDonald ’s ] Filet - O - Fish came from a franchisee . That is where we want to start to appraise : Where are your best franchisees innovate ? And using that information to make everyone more profitable . ”
Liskovich think the inauguration has been successful thus far because of its focus on building perpendicular SaaS for franchisors as a whole rather of sharpen on sector within franchising , which can include companies ranging from McDonald ’s to Orangetheory Fitness to UPS storage . He said despite the various different types of franchised stage business , the internal structure of these company largely looks the same .
There is n’t much competition in the franchise quad — at least for now — which is surprising yield the sizing of the sector and the fact that it isgrowing consistently .
Harmonyze is presently point franchisors that point up a sizable web of franchisees , as controvert to owners that just function with a smattering . Liskovich call up the startup will likely ramp up technical school to work with those modest players too , but the market is big enough in its fair game field to keep it busy for now .
“ We ’re frantic about the enlargement [ of the dealership mart ] , ” Liskovich said . “ It is not just large but turn at an mad rate . That chance is a growing opportunity . ”
