Workforce management firm Sona raises $45 million in Series B funding round led by N47

Sona, an AI platform for frontline enterprises, has bagged $45 million in Series B funding led by N47, with participation from existing investors Felicis, Northzone, Gradient, and Italian Founders Fund, bringing its total funding to over $100 million.

The cash will accelerate its US expansion and drive platform enhancements.

Sona's forecasting and scheduling enables businesses like Popeyes to better manage how their business is staffed, helping them to have not just the right number of people but the people best suited to the shift working at the busiest times.

This is combined with its labour AI platform, which takes real-time data about bookings, revenue, weather and every shift ever worked - along with any other factor which may impact a business, from box office takings to road closures - and builds models which evolve in real-time to predict not just what will happen but, based on historical productivity, what optimal operations look like and where there are opportunities for improvement.

"Every other enterprise software category has been transformed by AI, but the tools managing the world's largest workforce are still fundamentally the same systems that were built 20 years ago," says Steffen Wulff Petersen, Co-founder and CEO at Sona.

"We had a ten-year plan. AI made it a one-year plan. The old SaaS model delivered one-size-fits-all applications that companies had to adapt to. The next generation delivers the infrastructure and agentic layer organisations build on, giving them the power to create the exact software their business needs. That's what Sona is becoming for the frontline economy."

"In a global market supporting billions of workers, AI represents a unique opportunity to uproot entrenched, outdated frontline tools and usher in a new way of operating for the real economy," says Matthew Cowan, General Partner at N47.

"Sona has built the leading, end-to-end AI native product for workforce management, with best-in-class capabilities that enable it to become the operational foundation these organisations run on. We're extremely excited to partner with Steffen, Ben, and Oli in leading this round as Sona continues its journey to global category leadership."

Richard Tallboy

Richard Tallboy recently joined Sona as Chief Information Officer Advisor, a newly created executive advisory role designed to accelerate the company’s enterprise strategy and deepen its expertise across key areas of hospitality operations.

He brings more than two decades of senior technology leadership experience in hospitality, having held CIO and CTO roles across the likes of Pizza Express, Wagamama and The Restaurant Group. Most recently, as CIO at Côte, he played a pivotal role in architecting Sona’s hospitality vertical and championing the platform’s adoption at enterprise scale.

He will work with Sona’s leadership team with the aim of driving value across product strategy and guiding go to market execution, tapping his experience in managing complex vendor relationships and building on his tenure on Oracle’s customer advisory board.

2026 RTIH Innovation Awards

AI will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.

The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.

Check out our 2025 winners here.

Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.

In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”

“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”

He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”

Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.