SSona provides a software-as-a-service platform for workforce management focused on frontline employees in hospitality, retail, and logistics. Its mobile app delivers scheduling, time and attendance, payroll, and team communication to managers and workers, replacing spreadsheets and legacy systems with an integrated toolset. A standout feature is Agentic AI, which analyzes workforce data to provide managers with AI-powered insights and custom reports to spot location-specific trends and performance gaps, helping automate administrative tasks and improve decision-making. Compared with traditional HR and scheduling tools, Sona combines core operations (scheduling, attendance, payroll) with AI-driven analytics in a single mobile-first platform aimed at frontline teams. The company's goal is to help businesses efficiently run frontline operations, improve labor productivity, and scale through SaaS, supported by funds from a Series A to expand AI capabilities and broaden market reach.
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Industries
Company Size
201-500
Company Stage
Series B
Total Funding
$81.7M
Headquarters
London, United Kingdom
Founded
2021
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Total Funding
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'Be human when it matters': KAM's Katy Moses on attracting and retaining hospitality talent. Great colleagues, opportunities to develop and a healthy balance between life and work all play a role in keeping people in hospitality. But the experience employers offer starts well before someone's first shift. Speaking at the Propel Culture, Talent & Training Conference, Katy Moses, Managing Director of KAM, explored what makes people stay, how recruitment shapes perceptions of a business and where technology can give managers more time to support their teams, launching exclusive new research in partnership with Sona. Her message for hospitality employers was clear: understand what people value, remove unnecessary friction and preserve human conversations at the moments that matter. Moses deliberately used the phrase "life-work balance", putting life first. According to the figures she shared, 53% described their balance as well balanced, compared with 25% before the pandemic. Alongside this improvement, her findings highlighted the importance of relationships and progression. Almost three quarters (72%) said working with great people kept them in their role, while 59% identified training and development. "If we want people to build a career and not just a job then we want to capitalise on the things that make people stay," she said. For operators, those findings offer a useful focus for retention: the everyday experience of being part of a team and the opportunity to keep learning. Investing in these areas helps give employees reasons to see a future with the business. That attention to experience also needs to extend to prospective employees. As Moses put it: "Unhappy applicants are as vocal as unhappy customers." Research from KAM and Sona, presented during the session, showed how practical frustrations can affect the later stages of recruitment. During right-to-work, reference or background checks, 24% had provided the same information more than once, 21% had experienced difficulty uploading or submitting documents, and 21% had used several systems or methods. For 11%, checks had delayed their application or start date. These findings underline the value of clear requirements and straightforward handovers. A successful interview is only one part of the journey; the steps that follow also shape a candidate's first impression of their employer. AI offers opportunities to make that process easier, provided employers understand where candidates welcome automation and where they expect personal contact. Moses shared that 42% of candidates were comfortable with AI automating simple tasks, but did not want it to replace conversations with people. Pay discussions were a particular priority for human involvement, with 62% wanting a person involved. The KAM and Sona research also revealed concerns about how AI might assess applicants. Almost half (49%) worried it might overlook relevant experience, 47% that it might misunderstand their answers, and 45% that it might make unfair or biased decisions. Transparency and access to people could help build confidence. Clear notice whenever AI was being used would increase comfort for 51%, while 42% wanted a person to review any rejection and 37% wanted the option to request human help. There were also clear opportunities to ease the workload for hiring teams. With 21% of operators saying recruitment took more time than they would like, teams identified checking applications were complete (36%), answering applicant questions (32%), scheduling interviews (31%) and sending reminders (29%) as areas where automation could be useful. The session encouraged employers to consider how they would use the time saved: for more meaningful candidate conversations, better onboarding, and supporting and developing existing teams. "Be human when it matters, use AI to take away the friction and to automate simple tasks," Moses said. For hospitality businesses, this provides a practical direction for recruitment and retention: make joining the business straightforward, give managers time to build relationships and keep investing in the people and development opportunities that encourage employees to stay. The full research report from KAM and Sona is available to download for free here.
Sona appoints new director of health and social care. * 6 October 2026 * People moves Becky Speight has joined workforce management platform Sona as its new director of health and social care. She joins from learning disability charity Hft, where she was chief operating officer. Speight brings more than 20 years' experience across frontline support and senior care operations, including leadership roles at Hft and also Dimensions UK, a different learning disability charity. She also previously implemented Sona from the provider side while director of operations at Style Acre. In her new role, Speight will lead the company's strategy for health and social care, bringing her experience of running services and working through complex operational challenges into how technology is built and used across the sector. She will work closely with care providers and Sona customers, helping shape the development of the platform around the realities of delivering care, while also contributing to wider conversations around workforce, funding and digital transformation. Speight said: "I've spent more than 20 years working across health and social care and one thing has remained constant: the pressure on services and the people delivering them continues to grow. Technology has a huge role to play in changing that, but it has to work for care teams, not create more complexity for them. "When I started as a support worker, so much of what we did was on paper, or if you were lucky, a spreadsheet. We've come a long way since then, but sometimes I think we've digitised the complexity rather than removed it. The opportunity now is to think differently, to take work away, simplify things, and give people more time to focus on the people they're there to support. Having experienced Sona as a customer, I know the difference the right technology can make, and that's what excites me about joining the team."
Sona partners with Hire Intelligence to close the gap between hiring and rostering. Sep 28, 2026, 11:59:46 AM The partnership connects Hire Intelligence's job distribution and recruitment marketing analytics with Sona's AI workforce management platform, so hired candidates move straight into onboarding and rostering. Sona, a leading workforce management platform for frontline teams, has partnered with Hire Intelligence to help organisations close the gap between hiring a candidate and getting them scheduled, paid and working. The partnership brings together Hire Intelligence's programmatic job distribution and recruitment marketing analytics, which spans job boards, social channels and ATS systems, with Sona's expertise in scheduling, HR and payroll for frontline teams. By connecting the two platforms, organisations can move candidates from application through to their first shift without re-keying data or losing time to manual handoffs between recruitment and operations. Ewan Stark, CEO of Hire Intelligence, said: "Sona has built an exciting and highly capable platform, and there is a very natural fit between our two technologies. An ATS sits at the heart of the recruitment process. Hire Intelligence supercharges it by connecting employers to the wider world of recruitment advertising while capturing the data needed to understand what is actually delivering results. Bringing Hire Intelligence into the Sona ATS means customers can extend their reach, understand performance and optimise recruitment spend from the outset. They don't have to build that capability afterwards - it is there from day one. We're delighted to be partnering with Sona and particularly excited about the opportunity to grow the partnership across both the UK and US." Russ Kenyon, Head of Partnerships at Sona, said: "This partnership gives our ATS customers broader candidate reach and a much cleaner applicant flow, without adding any extra work for their recruitment teams. Those are exactly the kind of efficiencies that matter: a seamless hiring and onboarding process, running straight into Sona's HR platform." About Sona Backed by Google's Gradient Ventures, Sona is the next-generation workforce management solution for frontline organisations. Sona combines scheduling, HR and payroll with AI-driven decision-making to give leaders real-time visibility and help teams operate at their best. About Hire Intelligence About Hire Intelligence Hire Intelligence is a programmatic job distribution and recruitment marketing analytics platform, connecting job boards, social media and ATS systems through Apply Gateway. The platform gives employers real-time data and automation to optimise recruitment marketing spend and understand true cost per hire, processing tens of millions of job applications every year. Want to see what Sona can do for your operations? Book a demo to chat about your goals and see where its platform can make a difference.
Why Sona launched Sona LMS. Jun 22, 2026 2:00:10 PM Discover why Sona launched a Learning Management System that connects training, compliance and shift readiness, helping care providers reduce friction and ensure every shift is covered. For years, frontline teams in care have faced a persistent challenge: ensuring that staff are not just trained, but genuinely ready to take on shifts safely and compliantly. Traditional LMS platforms track course completion, but in reality, completion does not always translate to workforce readiness. This disconnect can create risk and a considerable administrative burden. Sona LMS is built to integrate learning directly into workforce operations, connecting training with the rota, HR and payroll. Why this matters now The pressures on care providers are immense. High turnover, constant induction requirements and the need to maintain compliance make it difficult to ensure every shift is staffed with trained personnel. When training is managed separately from scheduling, staff may appear available for shifts despite expired certifications, leaving providers exposed to risk and audit challenges. Sona LMS bridges this gap by making training completion actionable, so that workforce readiness is monitored in real time and staff are truly shift-ready, while also reducing administrative overhead. Why Sona built LMS as a native module Sona has always believed that technology works best when it serves the workflow rather than adding more layers of complexity. Scheduling, HR and payroll already reside within Sona, so building the LMS as a native module ensures that learning is seamlessly woven into the same employee record. This integration eliminates the need for duplicated data entry and prevents errors that often occur when systems are disconnected. * Completed training updates shift eligibility automatically. Expired certifications block shifts before the rota is published. Course completion, compliance and career progression are all visible in real time. The operational problem Sona wanted to solve Many providers have an LMS, but having one does not necessarily mean it is effective. When learning exists in isolation from the rest of workforce management, teams end up performing repetitive administrative tasks: re-entering information, chasing compliance evidence, manually managing induction and onboarding and ultimately risking unsafe shift assignments. Sona LMS removes these inefficiencies by embedding learning directly into workforce operations. What is live today Sona LMS is now available, offering a comprehensive set of features that address the real challenges of workforce training and compliance. * Shift gating: Completed skills unlock shift eligibility; expired certifications automatically block shift assignments. AI-powered course creation: Upload a policy document and Sona generates lessons, quizzes and assessments in minutes. Care pathways & onboarding: Probation, competency progression and care certificate pathways managed in real time. Reporting & audit readiness: 20+ reports across completions, compliance and career development, complete with AI commentary. Engagement & gamification: XP, streaks, leaderboards, peer badges and AI video support. Mobile-first UX: Accessibility settings for colour-blindness, dyslexia and text-to-speech. What this means for care providers With Sona LMS, compliance becomes a real-time, actionable process rather than a retroactive check. Staff are onboarded efficiently, administrative effort is reduced and managers have visibility into readiness and career progression. Looking ahead Workforce pressures will continue, but providers now have a system that reduces friction and ensures that staff are truly ready for every shift. Sona LMS is not a standalone product; it is part of a single, integrated platform designed to make training actionable and meaningful. Want to see what Sona can do for your operations? Book a demo to chat about your goals and see where its platform can make a difference.
Sona raises $45M to expand AI platform for frontline work. 2 April 2026 Key Takeaways * Sona raised $45M in Series B funding, led by venture firm N47. * The AI workforce platform now has over $100M in total funding. * Sona provides AI-driven scheduling, HR, payroll, and operations tools for frontline industries. Sona, an artificial intelligence startup for frontline businesses, raised $45m in a Series B round to help fund development of its platform. The new round was led by venture fund N47 alongside existing investors Felicis, Northzone, Gradient Ventures and Italian Founders Fund. With this new funding Sona has now raised over $100 million in total, and the company looks set to accelerate its user base on a global scale and grow deeper across the U.S. AI built for the frontline workforce. Unlike many lines of enterprise software, which are designed primarily for office-based personnel working in finance, HR, or software development, Sona is designed first and foremost for frontline employees. Its first customers are people in hospitality, retail, healthcare, logistics and social care, covering hundreds of millions of people, many of whom are still managing their businesses with disjointed legacy tools. Sona is trying to address this issue by creating an AI-native workforce management platform that consolidates multiple key business operations together. The platform merges scheduling, HR, payroll, compliance, and analytics tools. By developing their own proprietary software, the company are able to analyse huge amounts of operational data (such as bookings, staffing levels, weather conditions, and historical measures of operation) to effectively forecast demand, plan staffing levels accordingly, and run operations in real time. The company claims that these sound efficiencies also enable businesses to cut labour costs and provide better customer service at a time when many industries are experiencing labour shortages and rising costs. Solving a massive market problem. Workers in frontline industries face outdated enterprise applications. Companies continue to depend on spreadsheets, manual scheduling and siloed applications that don't pull all the key workforce information together. Sona's founders believe artificial intelligence can dramatically improve how these organizations operate. The AI tool predicts the staffing needs by looking at the workload, both from historical data and in real time. Then, it automatically creates a well-balanced plan. Essentially, it makes sure that there are enough workers at the right places, at the right time, minimising under- and overstaffing. A further feature is an AI assistant offering managers real-time operational insights and guidance so that decisions can be made quickly. Strategic growth. Investors anticipate that Sona has the potential to become the dominant platform for frontline business. Matthew Cowan, General Partner at N47, said this investment shows increased confidence in AI-powered workforce applications. He explained that many of today's workforce management systems were built 30 years ago and often can't cope with today's complexity of work. Sona's platform will essentially be replacing these more traditional facilities, as they now provide one integrated infrastructure where business will operate the scheduling, HR, payroll and analytics. Sona is also keen on further penetrating the US market. The company holds a growing presence in New York and intends to utilise the newly raised funds to scale its sales and grow its partnerships and enterprise customers in North America. The worldwide workforce management market is still expanding swiftly. As more companies implement cloud-based applications, they turn to modern AI-powered analytics tools to manage their workforce with greater efficiency. By deeply integrating AI into its core offerings and channelling its services specifically toward frontline workers, Sona aims to function as the backbone of operations for any industry that utilises shift workers. I'm a crypto writer with 4+ years of experience passionate about turning big, technical ideas into content anyone can understand. From blockchain to stablecoins to everything in between, I enjoy helping readers stay informed in a space that never stops moving. Disclaimer VentureBurn is a media platform covering the latest in cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, venture capital, and the startup ecosystem. Opinions expressed on VentureBurn are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment advice. Before making any high-risk investments in digital assets or emerging technologies, readers should conduct their own due diligence. All transactions and financial decisions are made at your own risk, and any losses incurred are solely your responsibility. VentureBurn does not endorse or recommend the buying or selling of any digital assets and is not a licensed investment advisor. Please note that VentureBurn may participate in affiliate marketing programs.
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Industries
Company Size
201-500
Company Stage
Series B
Total Funding
$81.7M
Headquarters
London, United Kingdom
Founded
2021
Find jobs on Simplify and start your career today
Don't see your dream role? Check out thousands of other roles on Simplify.Browse all jobs