Fourth
UK/US software for scheduling, payroll, and inventory in restaurants and hotels.
On the record
Checkpoint: iQ 3.0 enterprise rollout under new CEO Scott Collison
The call
Fourth's named-account grip on chains like KFC and Taco Bell holds for now, but a seven-year PE hold, a just-installed CEO tasked with AI catch-up, and a shrinking headcount all point toward a company being prepped for sale rather than a fight with Toast.
Fourth makes software that restaurants use to schedule workers and manage payroll across thousands of locations. It is hard to remove because restaurants have woven it deep into their daily operations over many years, but this is not impossible to break. Toast, a larger competitor that already serves about 120,000 U.S. restaurants, sits right next door and has no legal barrier to building the same tools Fourth offers, meaning switching is difficult but not forbidden. The one thing that could change everything is if Toast convinces major restaurant chains like Chili's or Taco Bell to switch away from Fourth, which would prove the lock-in is weaker than it appears. A secondary red flag is that Marlin Equity, Fourth's owner for seven years, is shrinking the company's workforce and hired a new CEO focused on AI innovation, which often signals a company being prepared for sale rather than for long-term growth.
Why
01
AI pressure: Toast Inc. (AI-driven Sling scheduling + POS bundle). Toast bundles AI-assisted scheduling into its POS stack, threatening to make standalone workforce tools like Fourth's redundant for chains already on Toast. Could AI do the core job? Only partly.
02
Bigger players: Toast, Inc.. Public, well-capitalized Toast is moving upmarket from ~120K US restaurants toward enterprise chains that Fourth currently holds via HotSchedules. Could a giant copy it? Probably.
03
What protects it. Deep multi-year integrations into payroll, POS, and compliance systems make ripping out Fourth costly for 15,000+ existing customers.
What would change this call
Toast announces a named top-20 QSR chain switching from HotSchedules to Toast plus Sling. Would show Fourth's enterprise moat is cracking and Toast is winning large accounts directly.
Marlin Equity announces a sale, recap, or dividend recapitalization of Fourth within 12-24 months. Would confirm PE exit grooming rather than long-term reinvestment in the business.
Fourth's iQ 3.0 enterprise rollout in Spring 2026 ships on schedule and is adopted by named chain customers. Would show new CEO's product push is landing rather than stalling under cost cuts.
Marlin Equity announces a sale, recap, or dividend recapitalization of Fourth within 12-24 months. Would confirm PE exit grooming rather than long-term reinvestment in the business.
Fourth's iQ 3.0 enterprise rollout in Spring 2026 ships on schedule and is adopted by named chain customers. Would show new CEO's product push is landing rather than stalling under cost cuts.
Key numbers
- 15,000+ customers, 100,000+ locations
- Headcount down 6.2% YoY, 959 to 880
- Marlin Equity owner since July 2019, no new round since
Named risks
- Marlin Equity has held Fourth 7 years, past typical 4-7 year PE hold, raising sale or recap risk.
- Headcount declined 6.2% YoY (959 to 880 employees, 2023 to 2026), signaling cost-cutting.
- Toast and UKG sit adjacent with resources to extend into Fourth's core workforce niche.
- Customer outcome claims (labor savings, forecast accuracy) are vendor-authored and unverified by third parties.
- iQ 3.0 enterprise rollout beginning Spring 2026 carries execution risk with major chain accounts.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Toast, Inc. | gaining on | acquired scheduling tool Sling in 2022, served ~120,000 US restaurants as of mid-2024 |
| UKG | gaining on | large enterprise HCM vendor adjacent to hospitality workforce management, no confirmed direct incursion yet |
| 7shifts | contesting | claims 1.5M+ restaurant professionals served, expanding into payroll and hiring (vendor claim, n.d.) |
| Workstream | contesting | claims to serve 46 of top 50 US restaurant brands including Taco Bell, Burger King (vendor claim, n.d.) |
Questions people ask
- Is Fourth profitable in 2026?
- Fourth does not publicly disclose revenue or profit figures since it is privately held under Marlin Equity Partners. No audited financials have been released since the 2019 HotSchedules-Fourth merger, so profitability cannot be independently confirmed as of March 2026.
- Who owns Fourth (fourth.com)?
- Fourth is owned by Marlin Equity Partners, a Los Angeles PE firm with about $10B in capital commitments, since a July 2019 merger of HotSchedules and Fourth. Insight Partners holds a minority stake from that same deal.
- Could AI replace Fourth's software?
- Fourth is racing to AI-enable its own products through 'Fourth iQ,' launched September 2024 and updated to version 3.0 in February 2026, adding above-store forecasting AI. The company frames this as defense against generic AI tools commoditizing scheduling and forecasting.
- Who is Fourth's biggest competitor?
- Toast, Inc. (NYSE: TOST) is the most cited threat, having acquired the free scheduling tool Sling in 2022 and serving roughly 120,000 US restaurants as of mid-2024. UKG and specialist rivals 7shifts and Workstream also compete in workforce management.
- Is Fourth about to be sold or acquired?
- No sale has been publicly confirmed as of March 2026, but Marlin Equity Partners has held Fourth since July 2019, seven years, exceeding a typical private equity hold period, and just installed a new CEO explicitly to drive AI-led product innovation.
- How many customers does Fourth have?
- Fourth states it serves over 15,000 customers and 100,000-plus locations worldwide with 2.5 million platform users, according to its own March 2026 press release announcing new CEO Scott Collison; these figures are company-reported and not independently verified.
Timeline
- 2026-03-12Scott Collison named CEO, replacing Clinton Anderson, to lead AI-led product innovation
- 2026-02-26Fourth iQ 3.0 launches with above-store AI; enterprise rollout planned for Spring 2026
- 2025-11-18Fourth iQ 2.2 update adds AI-driven compliance recommendations
- 2025-10-28Fourth iQ 2.1 update adds AI-driven inventory alerts
- 2025-09-15Fourth iQ App reaches general availability; iQ360 beta launches
- 2025-04-14Fourth unveils Restaurant Operations Suite unifying HotSchedules, HR, payroll, MacromatiX
- 2024-09-12Fourth iQ branded AI layer released across HR, scheduling, payroll, inventory
- 2024-03-21Fourth launches its first AI Platform across HotSchedules, MacromatiX, PeopleMatter
- 2019-07-10Marlin Equity Partners completes merger of HotSchedules and Fourth
Revision history
23 July 2026
First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- HotSchedules and Fourth Join Forces... (2019-07-10)
- Marlin completes the acquisition of HotSchedules and Fourth (2019-07-10)
- UK private equity firm (2026-04-07)
- Fourth Enterprises 2026 Company Profile
- Fourth Appoints Veteran Product Leader Scott Collison as CEO (2026-03-12)
- Fourth Appoints Veteran Product Leader Scott Collison as CEO (2026-03-12)
- Fourth - Headcount, Funding & Open Jobs
- 7 Best Fourth Alternatives...
- Introducing Fourth iQ (2024-09-12)
- Fourth announces the release of Fourth iQ (2024-09-12)
- Agilysys Announces Fiscal 2025 Fourth Quarter Record Revenue of $74.3M (2025-05-19)
- Fourth Launches the First AI Platform for Hospitality (2024-03-21)