Switzerland-based startup Unique, an AI sales intelligence platform transforming sales using conversational AI and automation, announced that it has raised an additional $6M (approximately €5.5M) in funding.
The additional funds come just four months after the company raised its first Seed round. Including the latest round, Unique has now raised a total Seed capital of $12M (approximately €11M).
Growth and ongoing evolution of remote and hybrid working have spurred uptake of AI-enabled conversational support and coaching to empower sales teams and customers, and Unique is uniquely poised to capitalise on this growth.
Investors in this round
The capital was provided by Swiss private bank Pictet acting on behalf of clients, Constantin Sturdza, and Swiss venture capital firm VI Partners.
Joe Neale, Partner at VI Partners, says, “We’ve been impressed at how quickly Unique has gained traction, winning a number of important customers across Europe, who recognise the power that Unique’s AI-driven conversational sales intelligence and automation can have to drive their sales teams to more success. As one specific example, we think the platform will make it vastly easier for financial advisors to comply with their obligation to document conversations with clients.”
Acquires German startup Ciara
Besides the funding, Unique also announced that it has acquired Munich-based Ciara, a real-time meeting intelligence startup. Ciara was founded in 2019 by serial entrepreneurs Martin Heibel and Konstantin Krauss. The startup analyses voice data to deliver deal insights and conversation guidance to sales and customer service professionals.
With this acquisition, Ciara’s IP, including deal assistance, will be integrated into the Unique platform, which includes real-time capabilities for Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and Zoom ecosystems.
Capital utilisation
Unique claims that it will use the funds to continue its rapid growth and aims to hire 100 new employees across Europe within the next quarters, including at its recently opened offices in the UK and Netherlands. The company says it has quickly gained customers in a number of industries, from technology to professional services, and in particular, banking and insurance.
Manuel Grenacher, CEO and co-founder of Unique, says, “Since our launch, we have seen strong demand from businesses that want to radically improve and support how their sales teams perform and close deals using the power of conversational AI. We’re thrilled that our latest funding and acquisition of Ciara will help fuel our rapid growth during this critical time. As where we work continues to evolve, our solution helps ensure that remote, hybrid and in-office workers have the intelligence and support they need to work effectively.”
Building a visionary Sales Intelligence platform
Unique was founded in 2021 by serial entrepreneurs Manuel Grenacher and Andreas Hauri, following their own experiences of building and guiding a sales team at Coresystems, a B2B SaaS startup they successfully sold to SAP. Unique is a venture-backed B2B SaaS sales intelligence platform that aims to transform sales by empowering both sales teams and customers.
As the future of work continues to evolve, and sales teams are either working in an office, remotely or in a hybrid mix, Unique aims to transform sales using AI to analyse customer conversations and deliver real-time insights to help salespeople understand their customers better and close more deals.
Unique uses conversational AI to crunch and analyse video and audio conversations to augment workers with real-time coaching and insights. Behind the scenes, automation cuts down on administrative tasks by automatically carrying them out.
For sales teams, the platform leverages AI to record and analyse sales conversations in 12 languages, including Swiss German, to deliver real-time insights and coaching. For sales leaders, Unique reduces the time to train salespeople, which leads to an improvement in the team’s performance. Unique increases deal visibility and its accuracy.
For customers, the company captures the most important, key moments of a sales video call that are securely shared in a “Deal Room” in one place that buyers can refer back to and share for a more transparent, seamless buying experience.
