Seed Funds for Research Automation Firm Conveo

Conveo, a specialist in AI-led video interviews founded less than a year ago, has secured $5.3m in seed funding, with which it aims to expand aggressively in its core US & European markets, and accelerate the development of its AI research co-worker.

The firm aims to make customer insights instantly accessible to any team, 'from researchers and marketers to the CEO', with the 'coworker' responding to simple questions to find relevant existing knowledge, launch new research, and deliver 'a complete analysis within hours'. The firm says the co-worker can conduct hundreds of AI-moderated video interviews overnight, in any language, automating the entire research process from project set-up to interviewing and 'instant analysis'. Clients already include Unilever, Orange, Sanofi and Google.

The round was backed by firms including Y Combinator, 6 Degrees Capital, Entourage, Pitchdrive and Syndicate One.

The company was co-founded by current CEO Dieter De Mesmaeker (pictured top) and former McKinsey consultant Hendrik Van Hove (pictured below), who say they set out to build 'the Qualtrics of qualitative research'. MR industry veteran Niels Schillewaert, founder of InSites Consulting (now Human8) and Professor of Marketing at the Vlerick Business School, leads Conveo's research efforts.

Van Hove comments: 'I've seen the value of great research at McKinsey doing hundreds of interviews and countless surveys myself. But it was always extremely painful with the scheduling, note taking, and long nights analyzing. That's why companies don't do nearly enough research [and] lose billions making the wrong investments or missing out on great opportunities'. De Mesmaeker adds, "We can't imagine anyone doing it the old way two years from now. 90% of the time in qualitative research is spent on activities that can be automated, so researchers can spend time actually creating value from these insights'.

Web site: www.conveo.ai .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.