Ghent-based Tekst, an AI platform that analyses and automates all B2B communication internally and externally, has secured €700K from Entourage to grow and sell their tech more widely in Europe.
Entourage is a Venture Studio and early-stage venture capital fund. Former Showpad co-founder Pieterjan Bouten launched it.
The fund aims to build and fund the upcoming wave of B2B-focused SaaS enterprises, prioritising innovation in products and services that fuel growth and transformation within the enterprise sector.
Bouten says, “Tiebe and Wouter (Tekst founders) are hugely ambitious and driven by their goal of making AI work in complex business environments.”
“They have developed a wonderful technology that delivers many efficiency gains in a very short time. We see huge potential for the company, and we believe they can grow into a global player.”
Boost efficiency through automation
Tekst.com mentions in a statement that before advanced AI, people had to manually turn text into usable data, like extracting info from emails for systems like CRM or accounting.
While AI holds promise, generic models like ChatGPT only convert text to more text, not data usable by databases. Interpreting unstructured text accurately remained a challenge. This is where Teskt looks to make a difference.
Founded in 2022 by Wouter Janssen and Tiebe Parmentier, Tekst has created a smart AI system that can turn unstructured text into useful data.
Parmentier, co-founder and CTO, says, “Existing software based on recognising keywords and setting rules can automatically label about 20 per cent of incoming mail traffic at an average company, with low accuracy. That is too little for companies to efficiently automate handling.”
“The custom-trained AI models we offer to our customers can figure out the meaning of many more messages, with higher accuracy. The fact that this eliminates repetitive tasks is not only excellent news for the companies themselves, it is also positive for employees. We take ‘boring’ operations out of their hands, making their work more enjoyable.”
Tekst claims to have already landed big clients including Becton Dickinson and Milcobel.
Security and privacy
CEO Janssen, says, “Our enterprise customers have often already automated a lot of data processes. But in their pursuit of touchless automation, they still hit this last wall: processing large volumes of text in emails, cases, orders and tickets automatically – but in a strictly controlled and secure way.”
According to Tekst, in B2B customer communication, especially with large contracts, quick and accurate exchanges are crucial while also ensuring security and privacy compliance.
Tekst’s AI model organises internal knowledge for analysing and routing messages, drawing from existing systems like SAP and Salesforce. It operates in the background, sparing employees from learning new tools.
Tekst claims to meet the required standards for security and confidentiality such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation and the global ISO 27001 standard of information security.
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