Fourth and HotSchedules Join Forces to Become a Global Leader in End-to-End Restaurant and Hospitality Management Technology Solutions
The merger creates the hospitality industry’s first and only fully integrated operations software and solutions for workforce and cost-control management
Fourth, provider of the only integrated hospitality workforce management and cost-control operations platform and HotSchedules, provider of the leading workforce and inventory management solutions for the restaurant industry, announced in July 2019 they merged business operations in an agreement backed by the investment firms Marlin Equity Partners and Insight Venture Partners.
The newly merged company keeps its name – Fourth. The merged company now represents the world’s largest and only provider of end-to-end restaurant and hospitality management solutions for customers across the globe and of all sizes – from a single location or franchisee restaurant to a global restaurant or hotel chain. The combined company’s complete software-as-service (SaaS) solution suite including: scheduling, time & attendance, applicant tracking, training, inventory management (procurement, HR) benefits and payroll services now serves customers in 120,000 locations worldwide and is supported by a dedicated, unified team across offices in the US, UK, Bulgaria, China, Australia and UAE.
This rebrand is designed to signal the company’s intent to consolidate all product offerings on the Fourth Platform and to transition the holding company name to Fourth Enterprises.
“The merger of Fourth and HotSchedules presents a huge opportunity for growth and innovation,” said Ben Hood, co-founder and CEO of Fourth and CEO of the newly merged company. “We are excited to join forces with a company that aligns so closely to our mission, values, history, culture and overall commitment to customer success. After overseeing Fourth’s journey to date, it is a dream partnership.”
“Merging with Fourth will enable us to accelerate innovation,” said David Cantu, co-founder and chief customer officer at HotSchedules. “As the two largest players in the restaurant and hospitality vertical, our combined strengths and industry expertise will ensure our customers have the solutions they need to solve complex business problems and remain competitive. We look forward to what the future holds and serving the industry together.”
“We are excited to team up with Insight Partners in order to bring together two industry leaders,” said Doug Bayerd, a principal at Marlin Equity Partners. “Our combined investment underscores our commitment to the hospitality management solutions market and the value these companies provide for their customers.”
“From a technological point of view, the merger is an integration of implementations of Java, .NET, Node.js, React, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure Cloud Services and many others. This allows us to provide our customers with more sophisticated and comprehensive solutions to the important business problems, in real time and easy to use. For the Sofia Tech Hub, this merger means a lot and provides growth opportunities to our around 130 employees and to those who will apply in the future,” said Georgi Hristov, Head оf Software Development.
Both HotSchedules and Fourth were founded in 1999 and started off with similar visions. This brand launch reaffirms the founders’ goal to mitigate challenges and provide clarity, flexibility, and efficiency for everyone working in the restaurant and hospitality industries. Ben Hood, co-founder and CEO of Fourth, is the CEO of the newly merged company. The executive leadership team includes David Cantu, Co-founder and Chief Customer Officer of HotSchedules, Simon Bocca, Chief Growth Officer, Matt Leone, Chief Operating Officer, and Christian Berthelsen, Chief Technology Officer.
The open poisitions in Fourth are growing in Bulgaria as well. All open positions can be seen on the career page here: https://www.fourth.com/en-gb/careers/
Some of the coverage is available below (in Bulgarian):
- Capital.bg: Software deal with Bulgarian participation
- Economy.bg: Fourth merges with HotSchedules
- TechNews.bg: Fourth unveils growth opportunities in Bulgaria
