Dutch tech startup Widget Brain raises $2.2M in funding to expands its AI-driven workforce optimization and predictive maintenance solutions

Widget Brain, a fast-growing startup from the Netherlands that helps organizations make optimized decisions
in Workforce Management and Industry 4.0, has closed $2.2 million (EUR 2 million) to quickly expand globally providing AI scheduling services to optimize workforce management and predictive maintenance. The investment came from Volta Ventures.

This is Widget Brain’s first funding. The Vermont-based startup has not raised external capital to date and has been profitable since it was founded 4 years ago. This investment allows Widget Brain to intensify existing workforce optimisation partnerships and to create new ones in Australia, Europe and North America at a faster rate.

Widget Brain was founded in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, at the end of 2015. In the four years building up to now, the company opened two more offices in Burlington, VT (USA) and in Canberra (Australia). The company currently employs more than 40 people.

Widget Brain offers plug-in AI services that allow for advanced demand forecasting and automated employee scheduling. Using these AI technologies, viable rosters can be made in minutes and the time spent on making them can be reduced to up to 75%. On top of that, customers like McDonald’s, Dominos Pizza, Facilicom and CitizenM have managed to achieve 5% better business performance in terms of revenue and labour costs, fully comply with local labour laws and make fairer and more transparent work schedules.

“Customers are increasingly asking for automated scheduling services and they pay us monthly to provide the best schedules ever made. Because of our 141% growth in MRR, we decided in the summer that it was time to attract growth capital to fund this growth, and we found the best partner in Volta Ventures. They believe in our vision as a management team and support the expansion strategy wholeheartedly,” says Widget Brain CEO Joachim Arts.

Sander Vonk, partner at Volta Ventures, adds: “In Widget Brain, we found the rare combination of an experienced and great team who built technology, went out to prove product-market fit and are now ready to scale. We look forward to supporting the team going forward and are sure the company will achieve great things.”

Widget Brain’s mission is to maximize employee happiness, compliance and business performance through forecasting and scheduling. Their AI-driven workforce optimization services allow companies to balance the different business objectives and to completely automate the rostering process, resulting in the best schedules ever made. Their technology is an answer to the emergence of stricter labor laws, employees becoming harder to hire and retain, rising labor costs and more competitive SLAs.

The company is currently investigating expansion into other markets with its predictive analytics portfolio by developing services for predictive maintenance in order to maximise machine uptime and performance.