Ando, a San Francisco, CA-based company building AI infrastructure for the global hourly workforce, has raised $4 million in seed funding led by Slow Ventures.
The round also saw participation from Blitzscaling Ventures, Zero Capital, Monochrome, Gaingels, Mana Ventures, Fireroad and additional investors.
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The company plans to use the funds to grow its AI platform and increase deployments for enterprise clients.
Ando is creating the world’s first AI system for the global hourly workforce to fix a broken scheduling system. It uses AI to predict demand at each location and helps teams create schedules that work for real people. This considers not just availability but also personal needs and constraints, such as required hours, school, or another job, helping people stay in their roles.
Hourly work drives much of the economy, but staffing and scheduling systems remain unreliable. In the U.S., around 80 million hourly workers log about 146 billion hours each year. Often, staffing doesn’t match demand, schedules change at the last minute, and workers struggle to balance shifts, childcare, school, commutes, and second jobs.
This system is costly and stressful for everyone. Hourly jobs see about 150% turnover, and replacing an employee can cost over $5,800 in hiring and training. Stores can lose $5,000 or more per week when they’re understaffed. In restaurants with urgent hiring, about 40% of new workers leave within the first 72 hours.
Ando has worked with enterprise customers for over a year and is showing early success. Its platform predicts daily demand with over 90% accuracy and plans to forecast and schedule in 15-minute blocks. So far, every customer that sees a demo moves to a pilot and then to a paid platform, with full retention. Some locations have generated $60,000 to $80,000 in additional revenue, though results vary and aren’t entirely due to Ando.
As part of its work to improve hourly jobs, Ando is supported by an advisory group of leaders in hospitality, technology, and labor policy.
The advisors include Niren Chaudhary, former CEO of Panera Brands and former COO of Krispy Kreme; Jim Messina, CEO of The Messina Group and former White House Deputy Chief of Staff; Loni Mahanta, Chief Legal Officer at HopSkipDrive and former VP of Future of Work at Lyft; Andy Mutz, Global CTO of Customer Experience at Microsoft and former executive at SAP and Salesforce; and Adam Sah, an early Google engineer, inventor of multiple patents, and investor involved in three IPOs.
“Many people think workers have just one steady job, but many hourly restaurant workers rely on multiple income sources—about 25–40%, especially in cities. For them, last-minute schedule changes aren’t just annoying—they disrupt childcare, transportation, and other shifts. Most scheduling tools don’t account for this. At Ando, we create schedules people can actually plan around, with fewer surprises for workers, less scrambling for managers, and a more stable day-to-day that values workers’ time as much as costs and operations,” said Paul Wellons, Founder and CEO of Ando.
“Labor is one of the biggest and least updated parts of the economy,” said Sam Lessin, General Partner at lead investor Slow Ventures. “With a more flexible workforce and improving AI, there’s a real chance to modernize these systems. We believe Ando is creating the foundation for the future of hourly work with their AI-based approach to predicting demand and managing labor.”
About Ando
Founded in 2023 by Paul Wellons, Founder and CEO, Ando is creating the world’s first AI system for the global hourly workforce. It tackles a major challenge: matching the right people to the right shifts at the right time. With accurate demand forecasts and smart staffing tools, Ando helps businesses lower turnover, reduce wasted labor, and give workers reliable schedules. The platform is designed specifically for hourly W2 employees and the managers who schedule them.
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