Ovation
Ovation is an AI-first guest experience platform for multi-unit restaurants, combining SMS-based two-question surveys, AI-driven operational insights, real-time guest recovery, and reputation management across approximately 8,500 restaurant locations.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2019
- HeadquartersOrem, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Ovation does
Ovation (legal entity Ovation Up, Inc.) is a private SaaS company that operates an AI-first guest experience platform purpose-built for multi-unit restaurant operators. The platform centers on a frictionless two-question SMS survey methodology that drives materially higher feedback volume than traditional long-form surveys, paired with AI-powered operational insights, real-time guest recovery with brand-voice response generation, and consolidated reputation management. The company serves approximately 8,500 restaurant locations across enterprise and mid-market brands, with documented outcomes including an 18x lift in feedback volume, a 97% survey completion rate, and an average 0.5-star rating improvement among customers. The platform integrates with more than 50 POS, online ordering, and loyalty systems, and is offered under tiered subscription pricing scaled by location count (Single through Over 1,000 locations), supplemented by usage-based SMS/MMS marketing credits, professional services, and transaction fees. Distribution combines an enterprise field-sales motion (demo-led, custom-priced, with dedicated customer success) with product-led adoption driven by rapid, same-day implementation. Ovation is incorporated in Delaware with operations in Utah and has raised approximately $12 million in total funding, including a $9 million Series A led by TIA Ventures in June 2024 and a $3 million customer-funded round from nearly a dozen restaurant operators in February 2026. The company maintains SOC 2 Type 2 certification and GDPR-aligned data processing practices, reflecting its enterprise positioning.
Ovation firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Ovation
- Legal name
- Ovation Up, Inc.
- Website
- https://ovationup.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2019
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Ovation is an AI-first guest experience platform for multi-unit restaurants, combining SMS-based two-question surveys, AI-driven operational insights, real-time guest recovery, and reputation management across approximately 8,500 restaurant locations.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Ovation industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Restaurant Guest Experience Software
- NAICS
- Advertising Agencies (541810)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Advertising (7310)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Reputation Management & Guest Feedback (THALACAK)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Guest Experience & Engagement (CRM, Messaging, Loyalty) (THALACAF), Loyalty, Rewards & Retention Platforms (BPAFAFAH)
Keywords
Where Ovation is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Orem
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Ovation business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- SaaS Subscription: Subscription-based SaaS pricing for the guest experience platform, with custom pricing based on number of restaurant locations. Multi-unit restaurants typically require custom enterprise quotes. Includes access to core features including feedback surveys, analytics, guest recovery, and reputation management.
- Text Marketing Credits: Usage-based credit system for text marketing campaigns. MMS messages cost 2 credits per segment, SMS messages cost 1 credit per segment. Credits are consumed based on usage with unused monthly allocations not rolling over. Provides upsell opportunity as customer usage grows.
- Professional Services: Implementation services, training, and customization beyond standard services available for additional fees. Includes dedicated Customer Success Manager support and unlimited training/onboarding.
- Transaction Fees: 2.9% transaction fee applied to credit card payments for services.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Custom enterprise pricing for multi-unit restaurants based on location count |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Credit-based SMS/MMS marketing with per-segment pricing |
| Other | Multi-year contract | Professional services including implementation and training |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels6 records
Ovation product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Ovation sells an AI-first guest experience platform that enables multi-unit restaurants to collect guest feedback via two-question SMS surveys, analyze operational performance across 35+ restaurant-specific categories, recover guests in real time using AI-generated brand-voice responses, manage online reputation across review and social channels, and run SMS/MMS marketing campaigns. The platform is sold primarily as a recurring SaaS subscription with location-based custom pricing, supplemented by usage-based credits for text marketing and professional services for implementation and training.
Product overview
Ovation is an AI-first guest experience platform for multi-unit restaurants that combines a core suite of products including Guest Feedback (SMS-based 2-question surveys), Operational Insights (reporting dashboards with heat maps and menu-level analytics), Guest Recovery (real-time issue resolution with AI-generated brand-voice responses), and Reputation Management (review and social media management). The platform offers additional modules including Text Marketing (SMS campaigns), Call-to-Text (phone-to-text conversion), and sub-products such as Winback (retention tool), Kiosk by Ovation, and Ovation Kiosk (in-restaurant feedback terminals). The platform integrates with over 50 POS, online ordering, and loyalty systems and serves approximately 8,500 restaurant locations across multi-unit and enterprise-level restaurant brands.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Guest Feedback SMS-based 2-question surveys and long-form follow-up surveys that capture guest experience data through QR codes, enabling multi-unit restaurants to collect and analyze feedback at scale with up to 97% completion rates and an 18x increase in feedback volume compared to traditional long-form surveys.
- Operational Insights Reporting and analytics dashboard for multi-unit restaurants that visualizes performance with heat maps, identifies operational issues across locations, and provides menu-level analytics and custom dashboards across 35+ restaurant-specific categories including food freshness, temperature, packaging, and speed of service.
- Guest Recovery Real-time guest issue resolution tool that enables restaurant teams to respond to concerns via AI-generated responses in brand voice, with the option to attach special offers to incentivize return visits and recover unhappy guests within minutes of receiving feedback.
- Reputation Management Consolidated platform for managing online reviews, business listings, and social media presence across multiple platforms with trend tracking and analytics for multi-unit restaurant operations.
- Text Marketing SMS-based marketing campaigns for customer acquisition and retention, including win-back campaigns and promotional offers delivered via text messaging on a usage-based credit system (MMS at 2 credits per segment, SMS at 1 credit per segment).
- Call-to-Text Feature that converts incoming phone calls to text-based interactions, enabling restaurants to engage with guests through their preferred communication channel.
- AI-Driven Operational Improvement Tool AI-driven operational improvement tool that delivers AI-suggested goals recommending specific operational targets, tracks progress, and automates change recommendations for each restaurant location across 35+ restaurant-specific categories.
Quantifiable outcome
- 18x increase in feedback volume compared to traditional long-form surveys
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use Ovation
Customer profileNamed customers10 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Ovation technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration1 record
AI capability6 records
Feature7 records
Ovation partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered infrastructure and core.
- Amazon Web ServicesinfrastructureAWS provides cloud, hosting, and infrastructure services for the Ovation platform. Sub-processor relationship for core cloud infrastructure.
- StripeinfrastructureStripe provides payment processing services for customer billing and subscription management.
- SalesforcecoreSalesforce provides CRM, customer account management, and communication services supporting sales and customer relationship management.
- HubSpotcoreHubSpot provides marketing automation and CRM services including email marketing automation.
- IntercomcoreIntercom provides customer support and interaction services including chat support functionality.
- BandwidthcoreBandwidth provides SMS/voice communication services enabling Ovation's text-based survey and marketing functionality.
- MongoDB AtlasinfrastructureMongoDB Atlas provides database and storage services for the platform.
- ClickHouseinfrastructureClickHouse provides database and storage services for analytics and data processing.
- Sinch EmailinfrastructureSinch provides email delivery services for customer communications.
- New RelicinfrastructureNew Relic provides software monitoring services for application performance management.
- DocuSigninfrastructureDocuSign provides digital signature services for contract management.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Ovation competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Birdeye: Birdeye is a leading multi-location customer experience and reputation management platform, directly comparable to Ovation in offering reviews, surveys, listings, and messaging tools for multi-unit operators including restaurant brands.
- Podium: Podium is a customer interaction and messaging platform widely used by multi-location local businesses, including restaurants, for reviews, webchat, and SMS-based engagement — overlapping directly with Ovation's guest feedback and text marketing stack.
- Tattle (formerly Grade.us): Tattle is a restaurant-specific guest feedback and operational improvement platform, providing the most direct head-to-head comparison to Ovation's restaurant-vertical focus and 35+ category operational analytics.
- Paytronix: Paytronix is a restaurant guest engagement platform covering loyalty, gift, ordering, and feedback for multi-unit restaurant brands, competing for the same enterprise operator wallet that Ovation targets.
- Thanx: Thanx is a restaurant loyalty, digital ordering, and guest engagement platform serving multi-unit restaurant brands with similar use cases around guest retention and marketing automation.
- ReviewTrackers: ReviewTrackers is a review management and customer feedback platform for multi-location businesses, comparable in scope to Ovation's reputation management and survey aggregation capabilities.
Broad incumbents
- Yext: Yext is an established digital presence platform with listings, reviews, and reputation management products used by multi-location brands; competes broadly with Ovation's reputation management module but is not restaurant-vertical specialized.
- InMoment: InMoment (formerly MaritzCX/Medallia competitor) is an enterprise customer experience and Voice-of-Customer platform offering surveys, analytics, and operational insights across verticals, adjacent to Ovation's feedback-and-operational-insights proposition.
- Toast (CX / Guest Insights): Toast is a dominant restaurant POS platform with an expanding suite of guest engagement, feedback, and marketing tools — a strategic incumbent that could bundle guest feedback capabilities into its existing restaurant distribution.
Regional players
- Customer Alliance: Customer Alliance is a European-focused reputation management and guest feedback platform for hospitality; comparable product shape to Ovation's guest feedback and review analytics but operates primarily outside Ovation's North American market.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Ovation social profiles
Digital presenceOvation compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
Ovation financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Ovation leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Ovation funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds7 records
Investors12 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Ovation M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Ovation
What does Ovation do?
Ovation sells an AI-first guest experience platform that enables multi-unit restaurants to collect guest feedback via two-question SMS surveys, analyze operational performance across 35+ restaurant-specific categories, recover guests in real time using AI-generated brand-voice responses, manage online reputation across review and social channels, and run SMS/MMS marketing campaigns. The platform is sold primarily as a recurring SaaS subscription with location-based custom pricing, supplemented by usage-based credits for text marketing and professional services for implementation and training.
Is Ovation a public or private company?
Ovation is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Ovation founded?
Ovation was founded in 2019. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Ovation based?
Ovation is headquartered in Orem, United States, in the North America region.
How does Ovation make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. SaaS Subscription is the primary driver. The others are text Marketing Credits, professional Services and transaction Fees.
Who are Ovation's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Birdeye, Podium, Tattle (formerly Grade.us), Paytronix, Thanx and ReviewTrackers. Broad incumbents are Yext, InMoment and Toast (CX / Guest Insights). Customer Alliance is listed as a regional player.
Does Ovation have an API?
No public API is recorded for Ovation.
What industry is Ovation in?
Ovation's product category is Restaurant Guest Experience Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is THALACAK, Reputation Management & Guest Feedback, with a secondary code of THALACAF, Guest Experience & Engagement (CRM, Messaging, Loyalty). Its NAICS code is 541810 and its SIC code is 7372.