15 Sep 2026
Zero raises $10.3M seed to build an AI successor to CRM
Zero said it raised a $10.3 million seed led by Primary Venture Partners and opened its AI customer-relationship product to the public after a private beta. Agents handle prospecting, record-keeping, and follow-ups while humans stay in control of customer outreach.
FINANCE desk priority — same-day company primary with a disclosed $10.3 million seed and a named lead investor for an AI-agent CRM replacement now opening to the public. This is a discrete funding-plus-launch event, not a valuation or a proven customer-outcome audit.
The same company page says the round was joined by Inception Fund, Defiant, Greens, and founders of Lovable, Supercell, Langdock, Silo AI, and Depict. Named individuals on that list include Fabian Hedin, Ilkka Paananen, and Peter Sarlin. None was printed.
Earlier backers, still company: 20VC, which led the pre-seed; PostHog co-founder James Hawkins; and operator funds the company says are backed by executives from Spotify, Wolt, Shopify, Dropbox, Meta, and OpenAI.
Company claim — attribute, do not independently rank: Zero calls this one of the largest seed rounds a Finnish tech company has raised.
Product timing, company: after a private beta, Zero is now open to everyone, with a 14-day free trial and AI-assisted migration from the tools a team already uses.
Product thesis, still company: agents build prospect lists, keep records updated, prepare follow-ups, and watch customer health; humans stay in control of what reaches a customer. The aim, the company says, is for a small team to handle more relationships well without adding the same amount of admin every time the business grows. Prospecting here means finding people worth talking to. Customer success here means helping a customer after they buy.
Co-founders, as the same page has it: Tuomo Riekki and Santtu. The page prints Santtu without a last name. Riekki writes that he co-founded Smartly.io and that Santtu led Smartly’s go-to-market across five markets. Extra Smartly revenue color stays in Sources.
Customer anecdotes attributed by Zero — company-cited claims, not an independent audit: Teamspective reports closing twice as much new business since switching. Watchdog cut its sales cycle from 60 days to 30, including enterprise deals. Emfas says Zero saves the team a full workday each week.
Plain English for the rest of the card: CRM = customer relationship management software that stores sales and customer records. Seed = early venture funding. AI agents here = software that does admin and outreach-prep work automatically. Customer success = the team that helps a customer after they buy. Private beta = a limited try-out before the product is open to everyone.
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On 15 Sep 2026 Zero announced a $10.3 million seed round led by Primary Venture Partners. Seed is early venture funding — a first institutional check, not a later growth round. The company PRIMARY is Zero’s blog post “We raised $10.3M to build what comes after CRM,” dated 15 September 2026, signed by co-founder Tuomo Riekki, and live at zero.inc/blog/zero-raises-seed-round. That company page is the filing event. These are company claims.