Calculus has led a £3 million investment round in hospitality software company Edify, contributing £2.5 million.
Edify was founded in 2024 by Ed Barry, who previously built and sold the Over Under coffee chain to Blank Street Coffee. The company develops an operations platform for hospitality groups and quick-service restaurant chains, bringing inventory management, demand forecasting and back-of-house workflows into one system.
The investment comes as restaurant and hospitality operators face pressure on costs, staffing and margins. Many general managers still rely on a patchwork of spreadsheets, manual ordering and separate software tools to manage stock, labour and day-to-day store performance.
Barry launched Edify after encountering those problems while expanding his own café business. Its software is designed around the decisions managers make in stores, with tools that automate ordering, flag discrepancies and create preparation plans for each shift.
Another part of the system, Ask Edify, pulls operational data into live dashboards so operators can query information without searching through multiple files or reports. The platform is already used by brands including Pret A Manger, Dunkin’ Donuts, WatchHouse and Yolk Brands.
Edify cited early results from Pret A Manger as an example of the platform’s impact. Pret estimates the software could save each store manager two hours a day, amounting to about USD $4 million a year across its UK stores.
Calculus is one of the UK’s longer-established managers of Enterprise Investment Scheme and Venture Capital Trust funds. It has more than 25 years of experience backing growth companies and around £170 million under management across sectors including technology, healthcare and the creative industries.
The firm has also been building exposure to hospitality technology. Its portfolio includes Grateful, a software platform focused on hospitality tronc and gratuity management, and the Edify deal adds to that focus.
Alexander Crawford, Co-Head of Investments at Calculus, said the firm was attracted by both Barry’s operating background and the company’s customer base.
“Ed built Edify because he’d lived the problem himself, and that shows in how the product is designed. Edify’s suite of products is a system built around how operators work. The customer traction at this stage, with brands like Pret and Dunkin’ Donuts already on the platform, is exceptional. We believe Edify has the potential to become the defining platform for how QSRs operate, and we’re proud to back them at this stage of the journey,” Crawford said.
The round included existing investors, though no further details were disclosed. The new capital will support Edify’s expansion as it seeks to win more restaurant and hospitality groups.
Operator roots
Barry’s background gives the business a founder with direct experience of the daily issues facing store managers and head office teams. That operational perspective has become a recurring theme among newer software companies selling into hospitality, where adoption often depends on whether tools fit the pace and routines of frontline teams.
Edify argues that fragmented systems remain a central problem. Managers often have to reconcile stock levels, supplier orders, staffing needs and sales forecasts while also dealing with customer service and team supervision, leaving less time to run stores.
The issue has become more visible as chains look for tighter control over waste, labour costs and procurement. Software that ties those functions together may reduce manual work while giving central management a clearer view of store-level performance.
Edify is positioning itself in that part of the market, where hospitality groups want fewer disconnected systems and more direct visibility into operations. Its customer list suggests it has already found an audience among established chains as well as newer café and food brands.
Barry said the business was created in response to a problem that extends across the sector.
“After scaling and selling my own coffee shop chain, I saw that the admin burden isn’t just a small business problem, it’s an industry problem. Operators are making critical decisions every day with fragmented systems, unclear data, and too much noise. Edify exists to change that. We’re not bolting AI onto old software. We’re building a live intelligence system around the way hospitality actually works, connecting the floor and HQ so GMs can lead better, stores can perform stronger, and businesses can grow smarter. Having Calculus alongside us, with their track record of backing ambitious UK technology businesses, gives us the platform to put Edify into the hands of many more operators,” Barry said.
