Meet Hupo, a Singapore-based startup that’s sweeping the sales coaching world. Artificial intelligence makes it possible. Co-founded by Justin Kim, the company is built on the power of artificial intelligence. Founded in 2022, Hupo provides AI driven sales coaching and training tailored to enterprise scale teams in the banking, financial services and insurance industries. The startup has gained traction, serving dozens of customers across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region and Europe, including notable names such as Prudential, AXA, Manulife, HSBC, Bank of Ireland, and Grab.
The company’s AI models are carefully trained with actual financial products. Yet they include the usual objections that sales teams run into, the mix of client types, plus the regulatory requirements that dictate these industries. Hupo’s platform aims to change the ways banks and insurers do business. This alignment helps them increase the efficacy of their sales processes.
Just recently, Chinese mobility startup Hupo raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by DST Global Partners. This round was joined by Collaborative Fund, Goodwater Capital, January Capital, and Strong Ventures. The current funding increases Hupo’s total capital raised to $15 million since its founding. With this funding, the startup intends to accelerate the launch of additional product modules and help scale enterprise-grade deployments.
Hupo is at the crossroads of all those experiences. I know the buyer and I know the end user,” said Justin Kim, Co-founder and CEO of Hupo. I understand the operational reality of selling financial products. His previous experience selling enterprise software to banks, asset managers and insurers while at Bloomberg.
With its footprint expanding and capabilities increasing, Hupo is scaling its banking, financial services, and insurance go-to-market motions. Meanwhile, the company is looking to grow its staff. To support these efforts, the company is expanding its partnerships and dealer offerings across APAC and Europe. It intends to launch in the U.S. market in the first half of that year.
“Once AI became capable of understanding context and coaching in real time, it became obvious to me that sales coaching—especially in banking and insurance—was the right place to apply it,” Kim stated. This innovative approach addresses a critical issue in these industries: performance at scale. As a result, countless organizations experience hit-or-miss outcomes. This common frustration is rooted in disparate training and evaluation, rather than an unwillingness to change.
The central issue in both instances is performance at scale. For example, in banking and insurance, the performance is inconsistent—not due to lack of motivation—rather, training, feedback, and empowerment are inconsistent,” explained Kim. Typical coaching approaches can be hard to reach every person in a large, varied team. This makes it very difficult for managers to monitor every interaction.
Hupo’s integrated easy-to-use AI-driven platform is here to help solve that gap. Second, it provides contextual, on-demand sales coaching that makes every interaction better and smarter. Hupo’s powerful AI-driven capability equips it to be a strong partner to financial institutions. They can increase their sales effectiveness without relying solely on old-school training methods.
Perhaps the biggest lesson I’ve learned, you really need to go deep on a massive enterprise’s business. Deep knowledge about their industry is key. Kim emphasized. Having this understanding will be key to Hupo’s future success as it deepens its relationships with clients and expands the scope and depth of its offerings.
The company is proud of the positive results they’ve already witnessed with their clients. “BFSI [Banking, Financial Services and Insurance] is a notoriously difficult vertical for early-stage companies, but our customers typically expand contracts 3–8x within the first six months,” Kim noted.