Published on June 4, 2024
- NL-based AI startup Neople has raised €6 million seed funding from Newion and Simon Capital.
- Founded in 2023, Neople creates AI co-workers for e-commerce customer support teams.
- With the latest investment, the company will expand internationally and open a second office in Berlin.
Amsterdam, June 4, 2024 – Dutch startup Neople, the software solution that creates AI
co-workers for e-commerce customer support teams, raised a €6 million investment round led by Newion and Simon Capital. They are joined in this round by their current investors Peak and Curiosity. The company will use the investment to enter the German market and launch the first AI-training center for digital co-workers.
Founded just a year ago, the company is on a mission to solve customer support challenges. Consumers demand high-quality support, but support teams struggle with high workloads. Neople solves this problem by offering a digital co-worker. By now, over 100 leading Dutch and German e-commerce businesses have hired a Neople.
Neople will use the investment to expand internationally and build a new AI training center. AI is not widely used in support roles yet, because it often delivers incomplete, incorrect, or poorly toned responses. This is a big deal in highly competitive markets. Neople’s new training center enables senior staff to train AI colleagues so they can eventually provide the best customer service fully autonomously.
Hans de Penning, co-founder and CEO of Neople, explains: “We are on the verge of a shift to a new way of working with technology. Soon, AI colleagues with the right soft skills will automate all repetitive and time-consuming tasks exactly as instructed. This future collaboration is what we call ‘Collegial AI.’
Customer support teams are often the bottleneck of an e-commerce business, dealing with numerous cases, including those from annoyed or even rude customers. Collegial AI makes their jobs more enjoyable and allows them to focus on the edge cases. Thanks to the investment, we’re launching an AI training center to train Neople to reply autonomously. We are also receiving positive signals from businesses outside the Netherlands. It’s about time we expand Neople’s presence globally.”
With pan-European investors Newion and Simon Capital on board, Neople has strong partners for its next growth phase and international expansion. The company will be opening a second office in Berlin in September, providing better access to grow their German client base.
Dorus Olgers, Principal at Newion, explains: “We are impressed by Neople’s humanized approach on AI, driven by deep vertical understanding of the markets they serve. This has resulted in a product their customers love, which has disrupted their traditional approach on customer support.”
Company description:
Since its establishment in January 2023, the young company has onboarded over 100 Neople in the Netherlands, making it one of the fastest-growing startups of the Netherlands. Clients like Rituals, The Social Hub, PSV Eindhoven, PON Bikes and Vitaminstore have employed a Neople. The Berlin office will be opened in September 2024. At the end of the year, 200 Neople will work at various e-commerce companies.
Newion IV is supported by the European Union through the InvestEU fund.
