Why we invested in Neople

Published on June 14, 2024

Hi there,
Last week, we unveiled our investment in Neople, a Netherlands-based company specializing in AI-powered customer support solutions for e-commerce. It is the latest investment of our Newion IV fund. Leopold, investor at Newion and part of the deal team, outlines the reasons why we invested in this exceptional team.

Historically, customer self-service applications have saved costs but often provided poor user experiences. We recognized this issue some time ago, which ultimately led Newion to lead the seed round investment in our portfolio company, Parloa. While Parloa concentrates on resolving this issue for enterprises managing large volumes of customer interactions, Neople addresses it through a domain-specific solution for e-commerce businesses by supporting the agents and giving them relevant insights.

Neople offers a digital co-worker powered by generative AI technology to assist customer support teams. This solution integrates seamlessly with various tools and data sources, continuously learning and adapting to enhance workflow efficiency. It is trained on internal company & product data, creating a feedback loop and becoming a central point for relevant support data.

The team impressively humanized AI through strong packaging and a technological approach, giving the digital employee an impression of empathy and understanding. This allows seamless collaboration with support teams, facilitated by an intuitive UX and low thresholds for adoption, resulting in a steep learning curve. Neople’s solution goes beyond the identification and segmentation of inquiries and the automated processing of those, but also combines insights from end-user interactions and feedback to improve the knowledge base.

The founding team, led by CEO Hans de Penning, brings extensive entrepreneurial experience and domain expertise. The team members have previously founded companies as part of different teams, gaining significant domain expertise and demonstrating their execution capabilities. This expertise and effectiveness are further evidenced by Neople’s rapid momentum, achieving significant milestones within a short period.

Neople’s innovative solution, strategic market focus, and strong execution capabilities align with our investment philosophy. Their ability to transform customer support in e-commerce with generative AI makes them a valuable addition to our portfolio. We are confident that Neople will continue to drive significant advancements in customer support, establishing itself as a key player in the evolving market.