In a bold move to redefine the sales landscape, Artisan, a San Francisco-based startup, has secured a $25 million Series A funding round.
The round was led by Glade Brook Capital, with participation from notable investors including Y Combinator, HubSpot Ventures (NYSE:HUBS), Oliver Jung, Day One Ventures, BOND, Soma Capital, and Sequoia Scout, according to Artisan.
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Founded in 2023 by Jaspar Carmichael-Jack and Sam Stallings, Artisan aims to revolutionize the workplace by replacing repetitive tasks with AI employees, known as “Artisans.”
According to the startup’s page, their first product, Ava, is an AI Business Development Representative that automates the entire outbound sales process. Ava identifies leads, conducts research, crafts personalized messages, and schedules meetings across multiple channels, including email and LinkedIn.
Ava is powered by a multi-agent system and a real-time context engine that monitors the web for buying signals such as job changes, new funding, or leadership moves. This allows her to engage prospects at the optimal time with tailored messages. According to Artisan, companies like SumUp have reported receiving eight to 15 positive replies per week from hard-to-reach small and medium-sized businesses without increasing their sales staff.
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Ava’s capabilities extend to managing email deliverability with a suite of tools designed to optimize every aspect of email campaigns. This includes email warm-up procedures and placement tests to ensure that emails reach their intended recipients. By automating these processes, Ava allows businesses to scale their outbound sales efforts effortlessly, freeing up valuable time and resources that can be redirected toward other important areas.
Artisan’s approach differs from traditional AI integrations by offering fully autonomous AI employees that take over specific job functions. The company believes that AI employees should be held to the same standards as human workers: they must perform their tasks effectively or not at all. This philosophy has driven the development of Ava from a supervised tool to an independent agent capable of managing complex outbound strategies and optimizing for pipeline impact.
