The archive · Developer & Business Tools · Strategic decision · 2023–2026
Darwin AI bets 'AI workers' win mid-market sales: 300+ clients, $2M ARR, Base10 seed
Darwin AI (Sao Paulo, Argentine founders) sells mid-market firms 'AI workers' — 300+ clients, 20 countries, $2M+ ARR, Base10-led $4.5M seed.
Darwin AI
What the business is
Darwin AI is a Sao Paulo startup whose Darwin 2.0 platform lets small and mid-sized businesses create and train 'AI workers' for inbound sales, outbound campaigns, collections and support — handling WhatsApp, Instagram and voice calls in Spanish and Portuguese, integrated with the client's CRM, priced per processed conversation.
Starting capital：US$2.5M seed in 2024 (investors include Canary, FJ Labs, Latitud, Dalus Capital, Bridge Latam); US$4.5M follow-on seed led by Base10 Partners (Aug 2025); total ~US$7M (R$37M+).
How it started
After building and selling Sirena, a contact-center AI company acquired by Zenvia, Argentine co-founders Lautaro Schiaffino (CEO) and Ezequiel Sculli (CPO/CTO) — partners for 11 years — founded Darwin AI in Sao Paulo in 2023. Their thesis: Big Tech serves the extremes (enterprise and micro-businesses), while the mid-market, whose high-ticket products demand consultative selling, is being left behind.
What happened
Darwin 2.0 lets clients create role-specific AI workers — inbound sales, outbound campaigns, collections, support — integrated with CRMs, calendars and knowledge bases, with human handoff and hallucination controls built in. After a US$2.5M seed in 2024 the company reported 300+ clients in 20 countries and $2M+ annual recurring revenue by August 2025, when Base10 Partners led a US$4.5M follow-on seed (total ~US$7M); 60% of the round was earmarked for Brazil, with Mexico next, and the founders said revenue had more than doubled in the first half of 2025.
How it ended up
Scaling: by March 2026 Darwin AI reported more than $3M in annual sales across 20+ countries and ~$7M raised, with named AI workers per role (qualifying, reactivation, satisfaction, collections, post-sales) and expansion into Spain and Portugal planned.
Background
Darwin AI, founded in Sao Paulo in 2023 by Argentine co-founders Lautaro Schiaffino and Ezequiel Sculli (who had previously built and sold contact-center AI company Sirena to Zenvia), bets that Latin America's mid-market will adopt 'AI workers' — trainable agents that handle sales, support, collections and post-sales over WhatsApp, Instagram and voice calls in Spanish and Portuguese. The wedge is consultative selling: clients sell cars, homes and education plans, where enterprise AI suites are too heavy and micro-SMB tools too shallow.
Darwin 2.0, the platform behind the pitch, lets each business create role-specific AI employees — inbound sales, outbound campaigns, collections, support — integrated with CRMs, calendars and knowledge bases, with escalation to a human when needed. Schiaffino's key learning, stated at the August 2025 round: hallucination drops sharply when prompts, context and knowledge bases are added, which is exactly what the platform manages.
The numbers followed the thesis. After a US$2.5M seed in 2024, Darwin AI reported 300+ clients across 20 countries and $2M+ annual recurring revenue by August 2025 — revenue more than doubled in the first half of the year — when Silicon Valley's Base10 Partners led a US$4.5M follow-on seed, bringing the total to about US$7M. Sixty percent of the round was earmarked for Brazil, with Mexico as the next market.
By March 2026 the company reported more than $3M in annual sales across 20+ countries and a 60-person team, with named AI workers per role (prospect qualification, client reactivation, satisfaction surveys, collections, post-sales) and expansion into Spain and Portugal planned. The open question is whether hybrid workforce is a category LatAm mid-market firms keep paying for — or a stopgap until bigger AI platforms absorb it.
What has to be true
- Schiaffino and Sculli had 11 years of partnership and one exit (Sirena to Zenvia), giving them credibility with the mid-market customers enterprise AI vendors ignore.
- The thesis is structural: Big Tech chases enterprise and micro-businesses, leaving consultative mid-market sellers with high ticket sizes and no automation.
- Per-conversation pricing and client-trainable AI workers share performance risk, making the sale easier than enterprise AI contracts.
- 300+ clients in 20 countries with $2M+ ARR by August 2025 (then $3M+ by March 2026) is concrete evidence the middle market will pay.
What can be applied
Price the outcome, not the model: per-conversation pricing and client-trainable AI workers make 'AI agent' a controllable employee — killing the mid-market's 'we can't build AI' objection.
Aftermath
As of March 20, 2026, Darwin AI is scaling from Sao Paulo with a 60-person team, more than $3M in annual sales, operations across 20+ countries and about US$7M raised (Base10-led $4.5M follow-on seed in August 2025). The Darwin 2.0 platform sells per-processed-conversation pricing and role-specific AI workers (prospect qualification, reactivation, satisfaction, collections, post-sales), with plans to expand to Spain and Portugal. Open risks: competition from larger AI platforms absorbing the SMB-automation layer, and the need to keep cutting hallucination in synchronous voice calls.
Sources
- Darwin AI raises $4.5M to scale hybrid workforce platform across Latin America
- Darwin AI levanta R$ 25 milhões para expandir 'funcionários de IA' em empresas de médio porte
- Conocé Darwin AI, Startup de IA argentina que levantó 4,5 millones de dólares en su Ronda Seed
- De curiosa tech a emprendedora que lidera una startup millonaria
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