Hupo, another startup founded in 2022, is making waves in the industry. Though initially aimed at improving mental wellness, they’ve shifted gears to work as a specialized Ai sales coaching service for financial institutions. Justin Kim, the company’s co-founder, just landed $10 million in Series A funding. DST Global Partners carried this winning round, increasing the total investment to $15 million.
What began as Ami has now developed into a robust and powerful platform. It’s what equips sales teams to endure the transactional pressure, develop high-leverage habits, and reform behaviors long after that inflection point. This transformational change reflects the startup’s dedication to developing a deep understanding of the challenges banks and insurers face. Hupo is looking to improve sales and service operations performance through real-time business coaching, specifically for the financial services industry.
Underpinning the platform is machine learning AI, which is designed to best equip sales teams for success. It provides specialized practice coaching that zeroes in on actual products, objections, client types and regulatory environment. Hupo has established itself as a major force in the Asia-Pacific and European markets. It self-consciously celebrates clients’ top marquee names like Prudential, AXA, Manulife, HSBC, Bank of Ireland and Grab.
We find ourselves in the middle of those two experiences,” added Justin Kim, speaking to Hupo’s advantageous position within the market. What I did understand was the buyer, the end user and the operational reality of selling financial products.
Hupo’s method is an of-the-moment thesis as even the titans of the financial services industry still wrestle with the prospect and reality of performance unpredictability. Traditional coaching methods fail to engage every member of the team, creating holes in critical training and feedback. What Kim wants to spotlight as the main issue in both scenarios is performance at scale. In banking and insurance, the outcomes change because of differences in training, feedback, and confidence—not motivation.
In this context, Hupo’s groundbreaking AI-driven platform is designed to fill these gaps, offering on-demand, 24/7 coaching to deliver a more equitable approach to health. Once AI figured out how to read context and be able to coach in the moment, I realized we had something revolutionary. It was the ideal use case for this technology,” Kim continued,” banking and insurance sales coaching.
The startup’s growth trajectory is promising. Kim continued, stating that the BFSI sector is always the most difficult vertical for an early-stage company to crack. Once she starts working with a client, on average her clients boost their contracts 3 to 8 times within the first six months. This clearly overwhelming demand is a testament to how well Hupo’s innovative approach is working.
Hupo is excited about introducing our solution to the U.S. market in the first half of 2023. Kim emphasizes the importance of understanding the unique complexities of each client’s business. His comment, “One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is the knowledge of knowing the business/industry inside and out. This is key when working with big enterprise clients,” shows his drive to dig deeper.
Looking forward though, Kim weaves a greater narrative for Hupo beyond its current purpose in the sales coaching sphere. He wants the platform to empower big teams to be able to work at scale as effectively as small teams in five years. To look at coaching through a sales enablement lens. This is important because we are looking to change not just teams’ approach to training, but to feedback as well,” he added.
Hupo is improving outcomes through customized AI strategies. This strategy places them on the cutting edge among all financial services players.