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Ben Dixon shared thisSona has raised $45M in Series B funding, bringing our total funding to over $100M. But more than a funding milestone, this is a product story. When we started Sona, the question was simple. What would it take to help every manager make the same great decisions as your best GM? That question has taken us from scheduling into forecasting, from HR into payroll, from dashboards into agentic AI that actually acts on what it sees. Today Sona is a single agentic system of record across scheduling, HR, payroll and communications. Our AI doesn't just report on what happened last week. It tells you what's about to go off track and what to do about it. We've been building AI into workforce management from the ground up, not bolting it on as an afterthought. This funding lets us move faster on the things that matter most. So proud of everyone in the Sona team for getting us to this point, it's without doubt both the smartest and the most entertaining group of people I've ever had the privilege to work with! And continually grateful for the trust our customers put in us and how generous they are with their time. We're just getting started!
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Ben Dixon shared thisReally enjoyed speaking at HT360 today. The room was full of hospitality leaders all wrestling with the same question: where does AI actually start delivering for our businesses? The idea that seemed to land most: the art of management is about to become even more important — because we will all be managing AI agents as well as people. And just like learning to manage people, there's a maturity curve. You start by micromanaging ("do exactly this"), move to task delegation ("do these tasks in this order"), then outcome delegation ("achieve this result"), and eventually reach the point where the AI is doing the work first and coming to you for review. That last stage is where the magic happens — it's where your managers stop spending three hours on a roster and start spending that time on the floor with their team and their guests. Thanks to everyone who attended and came to chat afterwards!
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Ben Dixon shared thisI'm delighted to be speaking at Hospitality Tech360 next Monday at ExCeL London. AI has been everywhere this year but I think a lot of hospitality leaders still feel like they're already behind. The reality is that 2026 is when AI starts delivering real, practical value for hospitality teams, and that's what I'll be talking about. The session is called "Give your managers superpowers." The core idea is pretty simple: what if every manager in your business could make decisions like your very best one does today? Not by replacing anyone, but by using AI to help with smarter forecasting, labour decisions and taking the repetitive admin off their plate. 11:30 on March 30th at the HT360 Hospitality Leaders Forum. If you're around, come say hello.
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Ben Dixon shared thisGreat piece from Harrison Horne, particularly agree with this point: > Legacy systems [were] never designed for them to be actively self-managed, iterated on, or optimised over time. They were not built to support the level of adaptation that is needed today when it comes to labour.Hospitality Knows How to Adapt. So What's Stopping It From Controlling Its Single Biggest Cost?Hospitality Knows How to Adapt. So What's Stopping It From Controlling Its Single Biggest Cost?Harrison Horne
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Ben Dixon shared thisI've been reading through the data from our new Care England report and one finding keeps nagging at me. Services can look fully staffed on paper while being operationally fragile in practice. That gap between what's commissioned and what's actually happening on the ground is where most of the real damage is done, and it's largely invisible to the people making funding decisions. 80% of providers are losing time to manual processes. Not because they don't want to modernise, but because margins are so tight there's barely room to invest. Meanwhile 54% are using overtime as their default operating model and 23% are just leaving shifts uncovered. The sector has normalised coping mechanisms that would be treated as critical warning signs in almost any other industry. The report argues, and I think the evidence backs this up pretty strongly, that digital maturity is the most controllable lever providers actually have. Not because technology fixes funding. But because you can't fix what you can't see, and most providers right now can't see where the pressure is structural versus where it's episodic. I'm talking through all of this with Richard Ayres and Care England on Tuesday 24th. If you work in social care leadership, commissioning or governance, I think you'll find it genuinely useful. https://lnkd.in/eZVnmbc7What’s Really Driving Workforce Pressure and How Providers Can RespondWhat’s Really Driving Workforce Pressure and How Providers Can Respond
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Ben Dixon shared thisNow obsessively looking for other places this phenomena might occur; restaurant occupancy by hour due to queue depth perhaps?! https://lnkd.in/ejx58_bj
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Ben Dixon reposted thisBen Dixon reposted this🎙️ New Tech On Toast Podcast Alert! What does good workforce management actually look like in hospitality today? Ben Dixon, our Co-Founder & CTO, joins Chris Fletcher 🍞 to talk about what operators are really dealing with right now — unpredictable demand, stretched managers, and decisions that still rely too heavily on gut feel. This episode gets into: ➡️ Why forecasting is still broken for most operators ➡️ How AI can support managers without adding complexity ➡️ What “right staff, right time” actually means in practice ➡️ How to scale consistency across sites — even when things get busy Understand why people, not tech, are still the biggest limiter to growth, and how AI can finally empower managers to make confident choices in the moment. 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://hubs.la/Q040xRZ_0 📺 Watch on YouTube: https://hubs.la/Q040xH1k0Most hospitality operators are still scheduling on gut feel. That's expensiveMost hospitality operators are still scheduling on gut feel. That's expensive
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Ben Dixon shared thisGreat piece on how the space you live in is far more than just "a space" and how living well in a space is closer to "sailing the building" than just existing https://lnkd.in/eYktrgww This in particular jumped out; > The magic of good housekeeping, Mendelson wrote, is that through it one identifies oneself with one’s home. The accumulated choices involved in household management come to express far more than just decorative taste. The homemaker’s habits, dimensions, lightness or briskness of touch, preference for warmth or fresh air, and consideration for the members of their household are all embodied in the layout of the home and the ways things are done there.
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Ben Dixon reposted thisBen Dixon reposted this📣 Adult social care services in England are operating in an environment of sustained pressure. From workforce shortages and rising costs to evolving demand and operational complexity. Join Ben Dixon and Richard Ayers to explore not only the current challenges the care sector is facing, but why it matters and what solutions need to be found to build resilience and sustainability. This is a must-visit for everyone involved in the care sector, equipping you with clear insights and meaningful recommendations you can use to influence strategy, improve performance and support your workforce. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/ekShxvqg 📆 Tuesday 24 February #CareEngland #AdultSocialCare #CareInnovation #CareWorkforce #CareSector #SocialCare #FutureOfCare #ResidentialCare #Collaboration Sona (getsona.com)
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Ben Dixon liked thisCongrats to Steffen Wulff Petersen, Ben Dixon, Oli Johnson and rest of Sona team on the new raise led by our friends at N47 to push their AI-powered frontline workforce management platform to new heights… cc Matthew Cowan, Niki PezeshkiBen Dixon liked thisSuper excited to announce Sona's $45M Series B investment led by Matthew Cowan and Fred Ellis from N47 in San Francisco with participation from existing investors Northzone, Felicis, Gradient, Antler and new investors Italian Founders Fund and Repeat Ventures. Thanks to Jeppe Zink Darian Shirazi Aydin Senkut Martell Hardenberg Lorenzo Franzi Dan Jones Markus Lang 🚀 At Sona we're building the AI leader for the frontline economy - the single platform to manage data, apps and agents - to intelligently handle the complexities of hourly workforces at scale. A huge thank you to our customers across the UK and the US — the forward-thinking operators who back better ways of working. A massive shout out to our elite team 🔥 We're here because of you - and we're looking for more AI-obsessed talent to join our offices across London, New York, Austin and Lisbon. We have no 9-5 jobs, but if you're looking to be all-in at the intersection of AI and the real world - then get in touch. Thanks Chris Metinko for covering our story at Axios 🙌 (link in comments)
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Ben Dixon liked thisBen Dixon liked this🌟 Congratulations to Sona on its $45M Series B! Serial entrepreneurs Steffen Wulff Petersen, Oli Johnson, and Ben Dixon are exceptional examples not only of founder-market fit but also of builders who showcase the success that product-first discipline and customer obsession can bring. Click here to read more about Sona and our partnership: https://lnkd.in/gpM7PMEW CC: Fred Ellis, Matthew Cowan
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Ben Dixon liked thisBen Dixon liked thisProud to share that Sona has raised $45M so we can do more for our customers, faster⚡ I've been at Sona for nearly 4 years, building across payroll, HR, scheduling and more. Right now I'm focused on Raffy, our AI agent for workforce management data. The goal is simple: help customers understand what's happening in their operations, whether that data comes from Sona or external systems. We're building Raffy around three core capabilities: 1. Ask Raffy anything about your workforce data “Who's working with me this Saturday night at this location?” “How can I save £300 on next week's rota?” “Build me a dashboard showing labour % vs revenue by venue.” 2. Raffy proactively surfaces what matters Instead of digging through reports, managers get briefings and exception-based insights: where labour was overspent, where teams were understaffed, or which sites need attention first. 3. Raffy will increasingly help you act, not just analyse The long-term vision is an agent helps recommend and take the next best action so operators can stay focused on running great sites. We're building this because we believe the future of workforce management is one where teams spend less time on admin and more time delivering great service. Excited for what comes next 😎
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Ben Dixon liked thisBen Dixon liked thisProud to share that Sona has raised $45M in Series B funding!!!! Working in People Ops here for the past two years, I see every day the kind of company this is - one that genuinely invests in its team and moves fast. We've grown a lot recently, and this funding means we're going to keep doing that. Excited to see what we can do for our customers going forward. If you're curious about what it's like to be here right now, feel free to reach out. With a headcount of (almost!) 150, we're hiring across a lot of teams, and we are NOT slowing down! Proud of this milestone and can't wait to see what we build next. Link to full announcement in first comment
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Ben Dixon liked thisBen Dixon liked thisSona Secures $45M Series B to Transform Frontline Operations with AI-Powered Workforce Platform Sona has closed a 45 million USD Series B funding round, bringing the startup's total funding to over 100 million USD. The round was led by N47, with participation from Felicis, Northzone, Gradient, and Italian Founders Fund. Founded by Ben, Sona is an AI-native workforce management and operations platform focused on the frontline economy. The software provides tools for forecasting, scheduling, HR, and payroll, as well as enterprise AI application-building capabilities. The platform aims to centralize business intelligence and operational tasks for businesses with deskless workforces. The company plans to utilize the newly raised capital to accelerate its expansion into the United States market and to further expand its AI platform. Additionally, the funds will be used to advance planned platform capabilities and deliver these features to customers on an accelerated timeline.
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Ben Dixon liked thisBen Dixon liked thisWe’re excited to see Sona raise a $45M Series B, led by N47, with continued support from Northzone alongside Felicis, Gradient, and Italian Founders Fund. From the beginning, we’ve been impressed by the team’s ambition to rethink how frontline businesses operate — and the speed at which they’re turning that vision into reality. Sona is building the AI-native platform for the frontline economy, bringing together workforce management and real-time operational data into one powerful system. Proud to be on this journey with Steffen, Ben, Oli, and the team.
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Ben Dixon liked thisBen Dixon liked thisTwo months in at Sona. Today we announced our $45M Series B, led by N47, bringing total funding to over $100M. What's struck me most since joining is the pace. We run on 'Sona time' here 🏎️ The round will accelerate our US expansion and fast-track platform capabilities that would have taken years under the old SaaS playbook. Two months in and I can already see why this team moves the way it does. Excited for what's to come! 🚀
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Ben Dixon liked thisBen Dixon liked thisSooo excited to be able to share that Sona has closed a $45M Series B, led by N47. 🚀 Bringing the total raised to over $100M. I've been privileged to be part of Sona’s journey for approaching 2 years now, watching the business grow in real time. Working alongside people who are genuinely obsessed with the future of Sona, obsessed with solving real world challenges for our customers, obsessed with coming to work, and show up every. single. day. 👏🏼 This was my first time being involved in a fundraise, and honestly? I had little to no idea how wild the ride would be. The late nights, the crazy hours, the endless moving parts happening quietly behind the scenes. As an EA, you're not the one in the room closing the deal - but you are the one making sure everything around it doesn't fall apart. The logistics, the coordination, keeping the wheels turning when the stakes are high. This was a masterclass in what great teamwork looks like under pressure 🙌🏼 We're building something truly phenomenal and I can not wait to see what comes next. LFG 🎉
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Ben Dixon liked thisBen Dixon liked thisI’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as an Enterprise Account Executive at Sona (getsona.com). I’m looking forward to working with a brilliant team and learning from the leadership of Lee Gordon, Nathan Key and Kate Baker as I begin this next chapter.
Experience & Education
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Sona - the employee app for tomorrow's workforce
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John Regan
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Zeeshan Ali Mohammed
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Rupika Taneja
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Over the years, I’ve noticed many hours of my week are spent with early-stage founders — conversations that are both energising and a reminder of the decisions we made at Codeyoung. Some of those choices turned out to be game-changing, even if we didn’t fully grasp their importance at the time. Looking back, we were fortunate to adopt certain key principles very early — despite having no prior experience in leading teams. And this is where investors play a pivotal role. The best investors don’t just bring capital; they bring perspective, pattern-recognition, and guidance you can’t always see in the moment. For us, Guild Capital played that role. Their frequent conversations helped us build Codeyoung into a data-driven, outcome-focused organisation. What made the journey even more meaningful was how their mentorship aligned with our own traits of empathy and curiosity. A few lessons stand out: - Building a data infrastructure early: Scaling without quality analytics is near impossible. And analytics is only as good as the systems you put in place. Our early bet in tech was not just on the product, but on digitising operations. This gave us process control and, more importantly, high-quality data to make sharper decisions and deeply understand learner experience. - Hiring leaders early: As first-time founders, there’s always a temptation to hold on to control. But to truly scale, you need to hire leaders, trust them, and embrace diverse working styles. I see this as one of the biggest bottlenecks for many young startups, especially after their initial traction. - Prioritising outcomes over working styles: Early founders often over-index on “people doing things the way they would.” That’s a mistake. Culture is essential, but culture should not mean cloning yourself. Different personalities and working styles bring different strengths. What matters most is consistent outcomes. These lessons feel obvious in hindsight, but at the time, they were hard-won What early decisions turned out to be game-changers in your founder journey?
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Rami Abi Habib
Querio • 8K followers
It's not common knowledge that Querio raised one the largest pre-seed rounds in the UK last year. I've had a lot of people ask for help around fundraising because of this. As I've promised to be very upfront here, let's talk fundraising. To be very blunt let's start off with a few key points: 1. Fundraising is an obligation not an accomplishment 2. Fundraising as a first time-founder is hard 3. Fundraising, like anything in startups, requires some luck. 4. It's not the UK, luck, or investors fault you can't raise. 5. If you can't fundraise, it's probably your fault. Fundraising is going to be a very hard thing for you to do as a first-time founder. Because you have a mix of 3 problems usually. You lack a network, you lack a viable business, and you lack the interpersonal /story skills. Pre-seed / seed is largely a question of: Do you make people trust that you can build this company successfully, do you make people believe that this company can be successful, and do you know the people that can invest in this business to begin with. To make people trust you can build this successfully, then you need to either have a good pedigree, or have godo experience (THAT RELATES TO YOUR STARTUP). Otherwise? You need to prove you can do it by doing it and come with traction. To make people believe that this company can be successful, you need either have a very good story that clicks for the investor, or grow at a pace that proves market pull. Also remember: Two investors can hear the same pitch and only one will invest. You need to balance when your story is bad, or the person just wasn't a fit. If you lack a network than you cannot complain, you need to make it work. You need to ask your network for introductions, cold email, and build in public. This can take months. It took me 6 months to raise. We almost died last year, now we're thriving. And yes, the more people commit to your round the easier it is to raise because if an investor feels derisked if another investor (ideally they view as better than them) already committed. Its how people work, just accept it and move on. Do not pay anyone to help you raise, do not hire advisors to help you raise, and do not go to focus on pitch competitions. If you want help from me or other founders, ideally ask for specific investors you'd like introductions to, prepare a blurb + deck I can simply forward for you. Make it easy for the introducer. For full transparency, we had 100+ outreaches, 66 rejections, 9 term sheets, and 6 closed deals. Last tid-bit on this suddenly long post: The one thing that will make your fundraise easier is revenue and traction. "But I need money" bla bla bla. Figure out traction, and people will trust you more.
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Kayode Odeleye
23mile Capital • 11K followers
It's pure grifting. You know the types... "Ex-VCs" typically, but also "exited" founders (small scale) who have fled the UK and sing the praises of [insert tax-free jurisdiction] They tell you "UK is going downhill, startup ecosystem in these markets is 🔥" This infuriates me because it's deeply misleading Yes, the UK has its issues but next to the US, its still one of the leading venture ecosystems globally - access to financing, talent and community TL;DR 1️⃣ If you're a big shot lawyer, PE or IB person, tax-free jurisdictions are perfect for you 2️⃣ If you're a founder working on an ambitious idea, you need to be in an established ecosystem Enjoy and like their images of a beautiful lifestyle but don't fall for the grift
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Mohamed SG Omar
SHINIMINI LTD • 1K followers
Threads new dear algo feature lands in the UK. Users can now coax the feed for preferred content. Amusing to see professionals sweet talking algorithms for visibility. Social platforms falter for genuine B2B networking. RealTime Network offers 36 million leads and precise investor matching. No guesswork just meaningful connections. UK founders thrive with disciplined tools like this.
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Edward Upton
Littledata • 11K followers
I chatted with a VC last night who's had 18,000 investment pitches uploaded to his website since 2022. How many has he invested in? One. Not because they don't invest. This is one of London's most active seed funds, with 70+ companies backed since 2022. But their online Submit a Pitch form isn’t there to boost deal flow .. .. it’s to LOOK inclusive, so they can’t be accused of only backing the old boys’ network. Founders, a word to the wise: Don’t bother cold-pitching venture capital funds! This investor went on to share that one of the key founder traits they look for is tenacity. And if you can’t find a way to a warm intro to the fund, or even connect with the investor on LinkedIn, then it’s unlikely you’re going to hustle your first sales. You’re not tenacious enough. The ideal signal the VC is watching for is that people who know you and your market well have already invested. Ideally you've already got small angel investments from: ✅️ Your early customers' founders ✅️ Your suppliers ✅️ Your former boss ✅️ Your friends I’ve been guilty in the past of filling in the 'Apply for Funding' form on a VC website, but it’s never come to anything. Don’t be tempted.
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Andrew Crump
Stealth AI Startup • 9K followers
The UK Startup ecosystem has a major problem. We’re encouraged to act like we have Product-Market Fit before we do. To raise money, we have to pitch as if our model already works. Then we’re pushed to execute - hiring teams, building departments, shipping features - without first proving our model is scalable. But 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 isn’t the same as 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠. Most things won’t work, yet the system rewards activity over learning. The result? Startups that look successful on the surface but are fundamentally broken underneath. The fix? Stop building like a business before we’ve proven we have one. -- 👋 I’m Andrew Crump founder of Unkillable I post daily at 9:30am GMT about the secrets behind the best Startups. The magic I learned as an Investor, Founder and by helping 1000’s of them grow 🪩. Follow me for more!
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Manoj Ranaweera
Techcelerate Ltd • 19K followers
How much funding went into UK Tech companies last week? According to Deal Lite, a total of £310 million was raised by 22 UK technology companies during the period ending 1st March 2026. 1,841 tech founders, investors and suppliers to tech companies received https://lnkd.in/efmz5xBP this morning. Are you one of them? Some of the tech startups we reported: - Luupli secured £445k Pre-Seed Investment - congrats Degraft Osei Kwame Jnr - London based #HRTech, #RecruTech and #SaaS company Clstr (t/a Kinfolk), an AI Workforce Operations platform for modern HR teams raised £5.1 million Seed investment from AlbionVC, PROfounders Capital, Ascension, Emerge, Tony Jamous and Saurav Chopra. #uktechinvestment #funding #investment #tech #uk #deallite #techfunding #techinvestment #venturecapital #vc #seed #seriesa
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