Helsinki Startup Zero Lands $10.3 Million to Replace CRMs With AI Agents
A Helsinki startup that wants to eliminate the drudgery of updating customer relationship management software raised $10.3 million in seed funding Tuesday, joining a wave of companies betting that AI can finally fix one of enterprise software's most widely hated tools.
Zero, founded by two former executives from marketing automation platform Smartly.io, secured backing led by Primary Venture Partners. Inception Fund, Defiant and Greens also participated. The round drew checks from Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen and founders from companies including Silo AI, Lovable, Langdock and Depict. Zero declined to share its valuation but confirmed it previously raised $2.7 million in a pre-seed round led by 20VC last December, bringing known funding to roughly $13 million. The company described the round as among Finland's largest seed raises to date, a claim echoed by several sources.
The startup opened its platform broadly on Tuesday after months in private beta, timing the announcement to coincide with the funding reveal.
Zero's premise is straightforward: sales teams spend hours each week logging meetings, updating deal stages, and researching prospects in their CRM systems—tasks the founders believe AI agents can handle automatically. The platform ingests signals from email, calendar appointments, call transcripts and other tools to update deal records, draft follow-ups and research leads without manual data entry.
"We started Zero because we think software should take on much more of that effort," co-founder Tuomo Riekki wrote in the announcement, though the statement leaves room for debate about how much effort current tools actually shoulder.
According to the company, the system builds on a unified customer data layer connecting prospecting, sales and customer success. Its agents can create deals from email threads and meeting notes, analyze customer health metrics, and prepare briefings before calls, according to the company's website. Zero syncs with Gmail, Outlook, LinkedIn, Slack, meeting transcription tools like Fireflies and Fathom, and support platforms including Intercom and Front. A two-way integration with HubSpot lets companies run both systems in parallel during evaluation periods.
Riekki previously co-founded Smartly.io, where he served as chief technology officer. That company raised a €200 million majority investment from Providence Equity Partners in 2019 and later crossed $100 million in annual recurring revenue. His co-founder, Santtu Koivumäki, led go-to-market efforts at Smartly across five markets. The pair now heads a team of 13, according to the founders' statement in a Reddit AMA held on September 16.
Zero's early customers include Pantera, a London real estate modeling platform that claims to save eight hours weekly on contact management, and Watchdog, an invoice validation startup that says it halved its average sales cycle from 60 days to 30. Teamspective, which sells leadership tools, reported closing twice as much new business after adopting Zero. Emfas, an e-commerce platform, said the system automates a full workday of CRM work each week. These testimonials appear in case studies on Zero's site, though the company did not provide independent verification.
"Zero lets us capture and connect data in ways that would've taken six-plus months to build ourselves," said Alex Wilson, co-founder and chief operating officer of Pantera.
The startup charges a promotional rate of $60 per seat monthly for the first year, then $77 thereafter, with a 14-day free trial available. That pricing puts it roughly in line with premium CRM tiers but below some enterprise platforms.
Zero targets AI-native startups between seed and Series B stages, positioning itself against both incumbents like Salesforce and HubSpot and newer challengers including Attio and Folk. Attio raised a $23.5 million Series A in March 2023 and a $52 million Series B last year. DevRev, which combines CRM with product and customer experience tools, pulled in a $100.8 million Series A in October 2024 at about a $1.15 billion valuation, according to CB Insights.
Investor Defiant published a thesis titled "Time to fix the CRM: why we invested in Zero" on the day of the announcement.
The challenge for Zero will be proving its AI agents can handle the messy reality of sales workflows—incomplete data, ambiguous customer signals, and the judgment calls that experienced reps make instinctively. CRM vendors have promised automation for years. Whether this generation of AI tools finally delivers remains an open question, one that Zero's $10 million runway gives it time to answer.
