Automated back-of-house labeling platform PrepWizard has secured a strategic investment from 404 Endeavors, a private firm focused on technology businesses serving restaurant and multi-unit operators. Financial terms were not disclosed. Brown Gibbons Lang & Company served as exclusive financial advisor to PrepWizard in the deal.
The investment positions PrepWizard to expand its workforce, technology development, and sales infrastructure as demand for digitized BOH workflows accelerates across the foodservice industry. Co-founders Cole Harris and Eli Harris will remain in their roles as President and Chief Technology Officer, respectively, maintaining continuity for existing customers.
What the Platform Does
Founded in 2019 by Doug Harris and his sons Cole and Eli, PrepWizard delivers an end-to-end prep labeling system built specifically to replace manual, error-prone BOH processes. The system pairs a cloud-based mobile app with integrated Bluetooth printers and custom-formulated dissolvable and low-adhesive labels. Restaurant teams can automatically calculate use-by dates and print accurate labels in seconds — a task that, done manually, is a persistent source of food safety risk and labor drain in high-volume kitchens.
The company also offers WorkWizard, a companion digital operations management platform that enables multi-unit operators to digitize task lists, checklists, audits, announcements, and other store-level workflows. Together, the two products address a growing operator appetite for software that bridges prep-and-storage compliance with broader back-of-house management. Consultants specifying kitchen technology for chain and franchise concepts will find the integrated hardware-software stack relevant to both food safety audits and labor efficiency goals.
Why It Matters for Operators
Food prep labeling sits at the intersection of regulatory compliance and operational efficiency — an area under increasing scrutiny as health departments tighten date-labeling enforcement and operators face sustained labor pressure. Manual label writing remains common even in sophisticated multi-unit environments, creating inconsistency across locations and exposure during inspections. PrepWizard's dissolvable label chemistry also addresses warewashing and surface-prep concerns, since labels that don't fully remove can contaminate wash cycles and storage containers — a detail relevant to warewashing equipment specifiers managing integrated BOH systems.
The 404 Endeavors backing signals continued investor confidence in purpose-built restaurant technology at the unit-operations level, distinct from broader enterprise POS or ERP plays. For equipment dealers and kitchen consultants, platforms like PrepWizard increasingly factor into full BOH design conversations — particularly in ghost kitchen, commissary, and high-throughput fast-casual builds where label accuracy and workflow digitization are built into the facility spec from the outset.
BGL's Restaurant & Retail Software investment banking team, which advised PrepWizard, has more than two decades of experience advising technology companies selling purpose-built solutions to restaurant and retail operators.
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.
