Objective Logistics said it raised a $1.5 million in a round led by Atlas Venture and Google Ventures. NextView Ventures, Canary Ventures and individual investors also participated in the round. The funding will be used to further develop and commercialize the Cambridge, Mass., company’s software for the restaurant industry.
PRESS RELEASE
Objective Logistics Raises $1.5M from Atlas Venture
and Google Ventures
Company Gamifies Workplace to Improve Restaurant Experience
Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 30, 2011 – Objective Logistics, developers of software to improve daily restaurant experiences, today announced it has raised a $1.5 million round led by Atlas Venture and Google Ventures. NextView Ventures, Canary Ventures and other individual investors also participated in the round. The funding will be used to further develop and commercialize the company’s software.
The software, MUSE, uses sophisticated algorithms to analyze all of the data produced during a given day’s business and provides restaurant owners with insight into their staff’s performance, allowing them to make changes to enhance customer satisfaction as well as increase traffic and engagement.
Through game dynamics and built-in incentives, Objective Logistics’ software also ranks and rewards waiters and waitresses with their choice of shifts and other prizes automatically based on their performance.
The total US restaurant labor software spend is estimated to be at $2.4 billion in 2011 and to grow to $5.4 billion by 2021 according to the company. Objective Logistics already has several early customers including Not Your Average Joes, a casual dining restaurant chain with locations in Massachusetts and Virginia.
“The concept and science behind MUSE are revolutionary for the industry,” said Stephen Silverstein, CEO of Not Your Average Joes. “By providing intelligence, MUSE should fundamentally improve staff behavior, and in doing so profoundly enhance the guest experience and increase sales.”
“While restaurant owners and employees alike want to gain insight into their operations and performance, the tools available have been cumbersome and mundane,” said Philip Beauregard, Co-Founder and CEO of Objective Logistics. “MUSE gamifies the workplace by giving owners the ability to rapidly measure staff performance and incents their employees to improve the customer experience.”
“Motivating and retaining employees is a constant challenge for the restaurant and retail space,” said Rich Miner, partner at Google Ventures. “Delivering a tool to engage staff using clever social gaming techniques that incent employees to continuously do better with customers is a winning idea. We look forward to working with the talented Objective Logistics team as they build out their business.”
“The Objective Logistics team has a keen understanding of the technical and cultural requirements in this space and how to generate demand for the MUSE platform. We’re impressed with the traction the company has already gotten with customers,” said Jeff Fagnan, partner at Atlas Venture.
About Objective Logistics
Objective Logistics was founded in 2009 with the intent of bringing together experienced retailers, restaurateurs, software engineers, game theorists, behavioral & data scientists and leading academics in order to fix what’s broken in the workforce. The company has offices in Cambridge and New Bedford, Massachusetts. It is backed by Atlas Venture, Google Ventures, NextView Ventures, Canary Ventures and individual investors. For more information, please visit www.objectivelogistics.com.
About Atlas Venture
Atlas Venture is a leading early-stage venture capital firm that invests in technology and life sciences companies. Since inception in 1980, we have helped build over 350 companies in more than 16 different countries. Atlas Venture is currently investing from its eighth fund and manages over $2 billion in committed capital. For more information, please visit www.atlastventure.com.
About Google Ventures
Google Ventures is the venture capital arm of Google Inc. We seek to discover and help develop great companies, and believe in the power of entrepreneurs to do amazing things. Our investments range from seed to late stage, across a broad range of industries, including consumer Internet, digital media, software, hardware, and biotechnology. We embrace the challenge of helping young companies grow from the proverbial garage to global relevance. For more information, visit www.googleventures.com.
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