The Deal
PrepWizard, a Boston-area provider of automated food prep labeling and digital operations software for restaurant and foodservice operators, has closed a strategic investment from 404 Endeavors, a private investment firm specialising in technology and tech-enabled services businesses serving multi-unit restaurant and retail operators. Financial terms were not disclosed. Brown Gibbons Lang & Company (BGL) served as exclusive financial advisor to PrepWizard on the transaction.
What PrepWizard Does
Founded in 2019 by Doug Harris alongside his sons Cole and Eli, PrepWizard targets one of the most persistent friction points in back-of-house operations: manual food prep labeling. The company's end-to-end system pairs a cloud-based mobile app with Bluetooth-connected printers and proprietary dissolvable and low-adhesive labels, enabling kitchen teams to automatically calculate use-by dates and print compliant labels in seconds. The platform is designed to reduce human error, enforce brand-standard consistency across locations, and free up labor time otherwise consumed by handwritten or manually entered labels — a workflow that remains widespread across independent and chain foodservice operations alike.
Alongside its core labeling product, PrepWizard markets WorkWizard, a companion digital operations management platform that digitizes task lists, checklists, audit workflows, operator announcements, and other store-level procedures for multi-unit groups. The dual-platform approach positions the company squarely in the broader restaurant back-of-house software category, which has attracted sustained investor interest as operators seek to offset labor cost inflation and reduce compliance risk.
What Comes Next
Cole Harris will remain President and Eli Harris will continue as Chief Technology Officer under the new ownership structure — an arrangement that signals 404 Endeavors is backing the existing team rather than installing new management. The partnership is expected to fund expanded investment in headcount, product development, and sales infrastructure. 404 Endeavors' stated focus on multi-unit operators aligns with PrepWizard's natural growth path: scaling from individual restaurant customers into larger chain and franchise accounts where labeling standardization and digital ops management carry the most operational leverage.
BGL's Restaurant & Retail Software investment banking team, which has advised technology vendors serving the restaurant and retail sectors for more than two decades, arranged the transaction. The deal adds to a run of middle-market restaurant technology financings as investors continue to target software embedded in daily foodservice workflows — a segment seen as relatively defensible given high operator switching costs once systems are integrated into kitchen routines.
For broader context on capital flows into foodservice technology, see our coverage of restaurant tech investment trends and back-of-house automation.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
