Munich-based bao, which stands for “be as one”, is a startup that helps sales teams to identify success factors in their conversations. Its AI-powered solution enables them to have better sales conversations, increasing conversions, and number of deals.
bao raises Seed fund
In a recent development, the Munich-based ‘Conversation-Intelligence’ startup bao announced that it has raised €2.5M in its Seed round of funding.
The investment was led by Amsterdam-based VC investor Peak (€1.45M). In addition, BayBG and Angels also participated in this round (€1.05M).
To date, the company has raised a total of €3.5M in funding from investor BayBG and angel investors including Alexander Bruehl (SaaS Garage) and Rainer Hoffmann (h&z).
What does bao offer?
Founded in 2017 by Benedikt Reschberger and Patrick Strunkmann-Meister, the startup helps companies to generate structured, analysable data from conversations and give sales teams data-driven hints on the next best action to succeed in conversations and systematically move deals forward.
The startup provides a situational real time guideline for sales conversations and thus increases the success rate for sales staff. bao’s ‘Conversation-Intelligence’ software uses best practices from past conversations, real-time analyses, and an AI that automatically delivers valuable data analyses.
bao reports that sales teams that use the software have 10 per cent more call activity, a 40 per cent higher chance of conversion to a next stage, and a 20 per cent higher success rate in closing deals.
How does it work?
The bao software leads sales employees through their calls with call scripts, adapting to the call progression and content in real time as well as provides guidance and recommendations for the further course of the call. And this helps the sales teams to increase their call numbers, have higher conversion rates, and close more deals.
bao’s situation-specific real time support of sales teams comes from the data collected from previous sales calls. Unlike its US competitors, bao does not record complete conversations, conform to GDPR restriction, but works with simple click flows and data from the sales representatives share of the conversation. Also, the company does not record the conversation of people on the other end of the line.
The company then structures this data and provides valuable insights with analysis functions and artificial intelligence in order to optimise sales conversations along the entire sales process. From conversation to conversation, the software provides the right approach and triggers to systematically close a deal.
Johan van Mil, co-founder and Managing Partner at Peak, says, “Due to automation and data, sales has evolved rapidly from an art to a science. Naturally there will always be natural sales talents but this new breed of Sales-SaaS, like bao, will enable companies to scale their commercial efforts faster and more efficiently. bao has proven to help companies by increasing their win rate with 20%.”
Brief about the new investor, Peak Capital
Peak Capital is a venture capital fund that has backed, for the past 14 years, founders across Europe, with focus on early-stage SaaS, marketplace, and platform models.
The firm has invested in more than 35 portfolio companies including auction marketplace Catawiki (exit to Permira); GraphCMS, a headless content management system (recently raised $10M); Creative Fabrica, a digital platform for the creative class (raised €5.76M earlier in January); and Studocu, a marketplace for study materials and knowledge sharing, (recently raised $50M).
Patrick Strunkmann-Meister, CEO & co-founder of bao, says, “We will use Peak’s expertise and the investment to further improve and optimise the product and the existing technology. A particular focus will be on the AI we have developed specifically for bao.”
He adds, “Peak was our first choice investor. They think in an entrepreneurial and courageous way, and at the same time have a feeling for the important details. We are delighted that Peak has recognised bao’s huge potential. Together we will surely achieve our ambitious goals.”
