The Munich startup Ciara receives millions in financing. Unternehmertum Venture Capital Partners (UVC Partners) is investing in the digital sales assistant. In addition to the lead investor UVC Partners, the investors include Interhyp founders Marcus Wolsdorf and Robert Haselsteiner as well as the entrepreneurs Christian Mangstl (among others Scout 24) and Felix Haas from IDnow to the investors.
Similar to consumer assistants like Amazon Alexa or Google Home, Ciara aims to help salespeople conduct sales conversations more effectively over the phone. With this approach, the Munich-based startup has now also convinced investors and secured millions in funding.
Ciara wants to perfect inside sales calls
A steadily increasing number of companies are investing in expanding their inside sales teams. They sell their products over the phone or online, while in-person sales meetings with customers are declining in importance. In inside sales calls, the first moments of contact usually determine the success or failure of a sales transaction. Ciara aims to help inside sales teams structure their phone sales conversations with interactive guides, playbooks, and intelligent objection handling.
"We're convinced that productivity assistants are creating a whole new category of business software. It's all about making people's lives easier in everyday professional situations. Instead of having to deal with dozens of tools, our customers want meaningful, automated solutions. With the Ciara Inside Sales Assistant, we're demonstrating exactly how this is possible: Through real-time, supported dialogues on the phone, Ciara Inside Sales helps employees and teams reach a new level of productivity."
says Martin Heibel, Managing Director of the young company.
Investors with valuable expertise
The founders were able to convince several well-known investors of their business idea, who provided the company with millions of euros in capital at the beginning of the year.
"With UVC Partners, the Interhyp founders, Christian Mangstl, and Felix Haas, we have gained a fantastic consortium of software, technology, and sales experts for Ciara. After just a few months of collaboration, we are already benefiting immensely from the knowledge and networks of our investors,"
commented Konstantin Krauss, co-founder of Ciara, the partnership.
“Based on our extensive B2B experience, Ciara’s solution has massive potential to increase efficiency, transparency, and conversion rates in sales, at a point that has so far been little digitized: in the conversation with the potential customer,”
says John of Borries, Managing Partner at UVC Partners.
“From my own experience, I know the great growth opportunities of telephone-based sales,”
says Marcus Wolsdorf, founder of Interhyp AG, Germany's largest mortgage broker, which he led to the stock market in 2005. He continues:
“The Ciara Assistant makes it much easier to train inside sales staff quickly and effectively, share best practice knowledge, and provide support on every single phone call.”
