Novo Labs

Novo Labs, Inc. operates as a specialized provider of conversational commerce services, focusing on automating restaurant orders through high-volume voice channels. The Dallas-based company was founded in 2017 by Clinton Coleman and Jeff Loukas. The founders brought together their respective experiences to address challenges in the restaurant industry; Coleman had a background as an investor and CEO for various companies, including roles in restaurant and retail, while Loukas had spent seventeen years leading digital product teams in hospitality, airline, restaurant, and telecom industries. They identified a persistent customer preference for placing orders verbally and aimed to digitize this channel rather than push consumers to other platforms.

The company's core business involves turning voice interactions from channels like phone calls and drive-thrus into digital transactions. This service is powered by a proprietary artificial intelligence platform designed to personalize and optimize each order. The platform's natural language processing stack is engineered to handle real-world conversational complexities, distinguishing it from simpler chatbot solutions. Key features include native integration with restaurant menu and point-of-sale (POS) systems, a scalable enterprise-grade infrastructure, and the ability to transfer a customer to a human agent when necessary. The business model centers on providing this end-to-end service to large restaurant chains, helping them manage high volumes of voice orders efficiently. By automating these interactions, Novo Labs enables restaurants to increase order volumes, reduce costs associated with manual order-taking, and improve service consistency.

A significant milestone in the company's history was securing $2 million in a seed funding round in April 2019, led by Silverton Partners. This investment was aimed at accelerating client deployments and expanding to additional voice channels. By September 2020, the service had processed over two million fully automated voice interactions for more than 1,000 restaurant locations. In a strategic move, Novo Labs was acquired by SYNQ3 Restaurant Solutions on June 4, 2021. SYNQ3, a leader in restaurant automation and technology, integrated Novo Labs to enhance its conversational AI offerings. This acquisition was followed by SYNQ3 itself being acquired by SoundHound AI in a deal announced in December 2023, further consolidating their position in the voice AI market for the restaurant industry.

Keywords: conversational commerce, voice ordering, restaurant technology, AI order taking, natural language processing, drive-thru automation, phone ordering automation, POS integration, restaurant AI, voice-to-digital transaction, food service AI, customer interaction platform, automated ordering, restaurant chain solutions, conversational AI service, voice channel optimization, Jeff Loukas, Clinton Coleman, Synq3, SoundHound AI