Duvo, an AI-native automation platform providing a specialized AI workforce for retail operations, has successfully secured $15 million in seed funding. The investment round was led by Index Ventures, with participation from Credo Ventures, Northzone, and Puzzle Ventures. Founded by seasoned retail operators, the company aims to tackle the pervasive manual inefficiencies that hinder growth and profitability across the retail, e-commerce, and consumer goods sectors.
Modernizing Outdated Retail Processes
The retail industry has long grappled with operational complexity, characterized by thin profit margins and vast supplier networks. Many core functions still depend on employees manually transferring data between a patchwork of legacy systems and third-party portals. These outdated processes are not only slow and prone to error but also create significant bottlenecks that impede agility in a highly competitive market.
Traditional enterprise software solutions often present a difficult choice: either undertake costly and disruptive "rip and replace" projects or build complex integrations that can take years to complete. As market pressures intensify, retailers relying on these fragile, manual workflows risk falling behind competitors who adopt more modern, efficient technologies. Duvo's platform is designed to offer a more accessible and rapid path to modernization for these businesses.
An AI Workforce for Business Teams
Duvo introduces an AI-native automation platform built specifically for business users rather than technical staff, democratizing access to advanced automation. Commercial, supply chain, and finance teams can directly create and manage AI assistants by describing their objectives in natural language. These AI agents then execute complex, end-to-end tasks across existing systems like SAP, spreadsheets, and supplier portals without requiring any coding.
The platform comes equipped with ready-made AI assistants for common, labor-intensive retail tasks, including weekly margin reviews, promotion activation, and supplier invoice reconciliation. This allows companies to begin with a single team or market, demonstrate tangible value within weeks, and then scale the automations across the organization. Early deployments have already shown an impressive 40% reduction in manual work for core retail processes.
Unlike general-purpose AI tools, Duvo's agents are designed to run retail operations autonomously, acting directly within a company's existing software stack. The system is underpinned by robust governance, security, and user management features, providing a complete audit trail for every action. Managers can set approval rules and trust the assistants to handle routine work, only surfacing exceptions that require human intervention.
Operator-Led Innovation and Investor Confidence
The company's strategic direction is heavily influenced by its founders' deep operational experience in the retail sector. Co-founder and CEO Tomas Čupr, who previously founded the European grocery unicorn Rohlik, witnessed firsthand the operational challenges that Duvo now solves. This operator-led perspective ensures the platform is tailored to the messy, real-world complexities of retail systems, a key differentiator in the AI market.
This specialized approach has attracted significant investor confidence, with Index Ventures leading the funding round. Jan Hammer, a partner at Index Ventures, highlighted the value of Duvo's vertical focus, contrasting it with horizontal AI companies seeking use cases. The investment also includes participation from prominent angel investors with experience at companies like Stripe, Amazon, and Wiz, further validating Duvo's mission.
With this new $15 million in capital, Duvo is poised to accelerate its product development and expand its team to meet growing demand. The funding will enable the company to scale its AI workforce solutions across the global retail industry, helping more businesses eliminate operational bottlenecks and gain a competitive edge. Looking ahead, Duvo plans to leverage its success in retail to expand into other verticals where operational complexity demands resilient and intelligent automation.