Sona acquires hospitality communications platform Yapster
Hospitality communications platform Yapster has been acquired by Sona for an undisclosed sum.
The deal is expected to fuel the expansion of Sona's frontline operating system, which has raised $10m (£8.1m) since receiving backing from Google's Gradient Ventures.
Together, Sona and Yapster serve more than 100,000 customers in five countries across social care, logistics, retail and hospitality.
Yapster was founded in 2015 and is a mobile messaging app that enables companies such as BrewDog, Caffè Nero, and CH&CO to communicate directly with frontline employees.
Rob Liddiard, co-founder and chief executive of Yapster, said: "All companies are under pressure to accomplish more with less right now, which means doing everything possible to get the most out of employees.
"Sona, with its backing from Google's AI fund - Gradient Ventures, is the only technology supplier I've seen in my seven years running Yapster that appears truly capable of delivering the consumer-grade design and AI power customers are now crying out for in order to solve their productivity puzzles.
"Craig [McMillan, Yapster co-founder and chief technology officer] and I are both excited to see popular Yapster functionality appear in the Sona platform at an even higher level of speed and slickness over the next year or so."
Steffen Wulff Petersen, co-founder and chief executive of Sona, said: "Yapster and its team are widely respected across the hospitality sector, and we see extraordinary potential to accelerate Sona's mission with this acquisition of their expertise."
