Gent / Amsterdam, 19 August 2024 – Uman, the Belgium-based AI-driven software platform for B2B sales teams, raises 1.9 million euros. The funding round is led by Holland Capital, together with existing investors imec and Seeder Fund. A pivotal moment for the Ghentian start-up, as the investment will help scale the company’s international presence.

AI Sales Revolution 

These are challenging times for sales teams in B2B companies that operate with a broad and complex range of products and services. Customers’ expectations are sky-high, sales departments are facing shrinking budgets and on top of that, they often struggle to master that complex portfolio, resulting in lost opportunities.

This inspired founders Charles Boutens (CEO) and Sven Degroote (CTO) to build the sales AI agent Uman. Thanks to smart data governance and generative AI, Uman offers relevant sales content and insights at the right times. This way, sales teams are able to meet up with clients with personalised pitches and offers, without having to do all that research and preparation manually. This results in higher conversion rates, increased efficiency and more cross-sell opportunities.

 “The way most B2B companies do sales now, no longer delivers the right returns,” Boutens explains. “With the possibilities AI creates right now, we envisioned how this could be more effective and efficient. We spent a long time building Uman, to make sure we got everything right – down to the last detail.”

Securing Uman’s international growth 

Today, several Western European leaders in IT, consultancy and telecoms are already using the AI agent, including Proximus, msg global and the Belgian media conglomerate DPG Media. The investment will enable Uman to secure its international growth. “We want to go to the next level and market Uman to the right audience. Not only in Belgium by the way – we also already have several customers in the Netherlands and Germany,” Degroote points out. “Our focus currently remains Europe, but we definitely have the ambition to conquer the US as well.”

This investment will significantly boost Uman’s ongoing growth and product development efforts. “We are thrilled to support Uman during this exciting phase,” said Jorg van der Heijden, Partner at Holland Capital. “Uman’s innovative approach to sales enablement is already making waves in the industry, and we are confident that our partnership will help them reach new heights. We’re especially looking forward to further scaling the team and rolling this out internationally so we can enable sales teams across the globe to work more efficiently.”

“We are delighted to have Holland Capital on board as a partner to further scale up Uman,” Boutens and Degroote eagerly add to the conversation. “The partnership will enable us to further develop our platform and expand our international market position. We are in the process of completely changing the way sales teams work by helping them every day to do more of what they really add value to: building relationships with their customers.”

About Uman

Uman is a cutting-edge AI-driven software platform revolutionising how sales professionals prepare for meetings and create sales materials. By leveraging generative AI, the company seamlessly integrates internal sales data and processes with a wealth of external public data. Uman ensures fast access to all relevant company knowledge in a fully data-governed way. This powerful platform generates hyper-personalised sales pitch decks, emails, and comprehensive client cases, all designed to optimise sales outcomes. Uman is a game-changer in the sales industry, empowering organisations to achieve new heights of success in terms of new business generation and effective cross-selling.

About Holland Capital

Holland Capital has been responsibly and successfully investing in promising Benelux and German SMEs with growth ambitions for over 40 years. The team understands entrepreneurship and strives for an open, sustainable, and professional relationship with the management teams of the companies they invest in, with the common goal of realizing growth. Holland Capital has offices in Amsterdam and Düsseldorf. With specialized sector teams, it focuses on the Healthcare, Technology, and Agrifood-Tech sectors. They understand the dynamics and opportunities, and have an extensive network in these sectors.