Paris-based startup Verso has raised $6 million in seed funding to expand its artificial intelligence platform for consumer research. Angular Ventures led the round, with participation from 100in, Kima Ventures, Olympe Capital, Sharpstone Capital, and several angel investors. The investment will support product development, international expansion, and hiring across technical and commercial teams.
Addressing Challenges in Consumer Research
Founded in 2025 by Lydia Bellahouel and Camille Epitalon with support from startup studio Hexa, Verso aims to make consumer insights accessible throughout organizations. Its technology combines automated research processes with a growing repository of customer knowledge. The company wants product, marketing, and sales teams to use that information when making business decisions.
Traditional consumer research can be expensive and take several weeks to complete. Even after a study is finished, its findings may remain within dedicated insights departments rather than reaching teams responsible for developing products or marketing campaigns. Verso aims to address these delays by providing a centralized platform for gathering and accessing consumer intelligence.
Bellahouel previously spent seven years at Boston Consulting Group, applying AI to marketing and innovation for consumer businesses. Epitalon brings experience developing agent-based technologies at CO2AI. Their combined expertise helped shape a platform designed to connect consumer research with everyday business operations.
Automating Research With Artificial Intelligence
Verso manages several stages of qualitative consumer research, beginning with study design and participant recruitment. The platform conducts video interviews with real consumers using AI moderators that adapt questions as conversations develop. Once interviews are completed, the software analyzes responses and organizes the findings into insights that business teams can explore.
Unlike conventional research projects that conclude with static reports, Verso maintains findings in a searchable knowledge base. Each new study contributes to evolving consumer personas, allowing companies to revisit earlier research instead of commissioning new studies. This approach is intended to make consumer knowledge more valuable over time.
Teams can compare audience segments, examine differences in preferences, and monitor changes in consumer attitudes across successive studies. They can also revisit existing findings when new product development, marketing, or positioning decisions arise. Verso positions this continuous accessibility as a key difference from traditional research services.
Enterprise Adoption and Platform Performance
According to Verso, its platform delivers consumer insights approximately ten times faster than traditional research agencies at roughly one-quarter of the cost. The company also claims its studies can reach fifteen times more consumers. These figures represent company-reported performance comparisons rather than independently verified industry benchmarks.
More than 30 companies currently use Verso's platform, including Ferrero, Orange, and Michelin. This customer base demonstrates early adoption among established businesses seeking more efficient consumer research processes. In a testimonial included in the funding announcement, Ferrero reported significantly faster access to consumer insights compared with traditional approaches.
Funding to Support Product Development and Expansion
Verso plans to use the new capital to expand beyond AI-powered qualitative interviews. Its product roadmap includes integrating quantitative research, social listening, and additional consumer data sources typically managed across separate systems. Combining these capabilities would allow organizations to examine consumer behavior using a broader range of information.
The company also intends to develop interfaces that allow AI agents to access consumer knowledge within existing business workflows. International expansion represents another priority, with the United States identified as its initial target market beyond France. Additional recruitment across engineering and go-to-market functions will support these development and expansion plans.
Verso's $6 million seed round provides additional resources to develop its consumer intelligence platform and pursue international growth. Backed by Angular Ventures and other investors, the company is seeking to make customer understanding a continuous part of corporate decision-making rather than an occasional research exercise. Its next challenge will be translating early enterprise adoption into sustainable growth while maintaining the quality and reliability of its research.