Today’s ecommerce shoppers are all too familiar with bots that dish out scripted answers but rarely solve problems. Berlin-based Konvo AI aims to flip that experience. The startup has raised a €3.5 million seed round led by Samaipata, alongside Abac Nest, JME, Itnig, Combination.vc, plus new backers including Xavier Pladellorens, founder of Deporvillage, and early Ankorstore exec Tomás Pueyo. To date, Konvo has raised €4.3 million.
Unlike traditional chatbots that frustrate customers into yelling “agent!”, Konvo builds proactive AI agents that autonomously engage shoppers, close sales, and resolve complex issues end-to-end. Instead of handing off tickets to human staff, Konvo’s AI can directly call couriers about missing deliveries or recommend products based on browsing behaviour.
“Most AI agents follow rigid scripts – if a customer says “cancel my order,” they cancel it accordingly. If an order shows “delivered,” that’s what they report. Our agents think like human associates and solve the real problem.
Here’s the difference: A customer wants to cancel their order, but our agent realises they just picked the wrong size. Instead of cancelling, it updates the size – problem solved, sale saved. If an order shows “delivered” but the customer claims it isn’t, our agent calls the courier directly to investigate,” says Konvo AI co-founder Guillem Oliva, in a conversation with TFN.
Oliva also highlights that Konvo doesn’t build rigid workflows. “We train agents on your processes, give them skills, set boundaries, then let them decide what action fits each situation. The result is truly autonomous agents that adapt to complex customer needs instead of just following scripts.”
From high-performance athletes to ecommerce AI
Oliva cofounded Konvo with Scott Kapelewski after they met at the WhatsApp marketing startup Charles in Berlin. “Scott and I met at Charles, a WhatsApp marketing startup in Berlin, where I was leading expansion after my time as a McKinsey consultant working with major eCommerce brands. Scott brought over 10 years of tech expertise, including building and selling his own eCommerce-related tech solution during the limited sneaker release era,” Oliva recalls.
The cofounders share a competitive drive rooted in sports. “We were both former high-performance athletes with a shared ambition and deep understanding of ecommerce, so it was clear from the beginning we were going to build something together. The combination of my market background and Scott’s technical expertise made perfect sense for tackling this problem.”
For Oliva, the mission is also personal. “I grew up seeing my mom deliver incredible customer service at her small retail store. Later, I saw big e-commerce brands claim to care about customers but fail to deliver, mostly due to a lack of resources. The rise of AI created a unique chance to change that — to make it easy for all ecommerce brands to delight customers with every interaction. That was the start of Konvo AI.”
Turning cost centres into revenue engines
E-commerce customer service is a $12.5 billion market growing 10% annually, but rising acquisition costs, staff churn, and customer expectations for personalisation are stretching it thin.
“Customer acquisition costs have increased 5x, support teams churn at 40% annually, costing €10k per replacement, and 74% of customers expect personalisation that brands can’t deliver. Service ends up as a cost centre instead of a competitive advantage. We’re solving this by turning that cost centre into a revenue engine through proactive AI agents,” Oliva explains.
When asked about rivals, Oliva says, “We see two camps: incumbents like Zendesk and Gorgias, and newer AI-first platforms. But nobody is building truly proactive agents that take real-world action like we do. For us, the main race is execution speed, to position Konvo as the category leader.”
What’s next?
Konvo’s team of 13 spans 10 nationalities, with women making up 25% of the workforce. The startup is based in Berlin and Barcelona, planning to scale rapidly on both fronts.
Oliva concludes, “In the short term, we’re focused on becoming the leading AI agent platform for e-commerce in Europe. That means going beyond customer service to encompass the full customer experience journey — not just resolving issues, but also proactively driving sales and retention. In the longer term, our ambition is global expansion. Every ecommerce brand should have agents that work like their best store associate — proactive, smart, and revenue-driving.”