- Zero announced an €8.93 million ($10.3 million) seed round led by Primary Venture Partners, with participation from Inception Fund, Defiant, Greens, and founders of Lovable, Supercell, Langdock, and Silo AI.
- Zero is positioning itself as a 2026 Salesforce or HubSpot challenger, stating that the existing CRM model is finished.
- Zero was founded in 2024 by Tuomo Riekki and Santtu Koivumäki, who previously scaled Smartly to $100 million ARR.
- In December 2024, Zero raised €2.34 million ($2.7 million) in pre-seed funding led by 20VC.
Helsinki-based startup Zero has successfully raised €8.93 million ($10.3 million) in a seed funding round, marking one of the largest seed rounds for a Finnish tech company. The funding was led by Primary Venture Partners and included notable investors such as the founders of Lovable and Supercell.123
Zero aims to challenge established CRM giants like Salesforce and HubSpot by introducing an AI-driven platform that consolidates various customer relationship management tools into a single, autonomous system. According to the company, their technology replaces traditional CRMs and streamlines processes for prospecting, customer success, and revenue operations.
The startup's founders, Tuomo Riekki and Santtu Koivumäki, previously scaled Smartly.io to $100 million in ARR. Riekki stated, “AI has made it much easier to build products. It hasn’t made it easier to build a business around them.” He emphasized that Zero allows teams to focus on customer interactions rather than administrative tasks.
Zero's AI agents automate tasks such as building prospect lists and monitoring customer relationships, significantly reducing manual work. During its private beta, users reported closing twice as much new business after switching to Zero, showcasing the platform's potential impact on efficiency and productivity.
“The next generation of companies will win and support more customers with smaller teams because the tools they use will finally do their share of the work,” Koivumäki added, highlighting the startup's vision for the future of customer relationship management.
“The seed round is one of the largest ever for a Finnish tech company, with earlier backers including 20VC and PostHog's James Hawkins. Zero's AI agents automate prospecting and customer monitoring, and during private beta, Teamspective closed twice as much new business after switching.”
Tech.eu
