Hupo's AI sales-coaching pivot lands HSBC/Prudential and a DST-led $10M round

An AI sales-coaching platform for banking, insurance and financial services that listens to real client conversations and gives agents role-specific, real-time guidance, letting enterprises train thousands of employees consistently.

That AI listening to real calls can coach thousands of bank and insurance employees consistently, replacing coaching that managers cannot scale.

$15M total since 2022 founding, including a $10M Series A led by DST Global Partners (Jan 2026) with Collaborative Fund, Goodwater Capital, January Capital and Strong Ventures.

Justin Kim founded the company in 2022 as Ami, a mental-wellness platform focused on how people manage pressure, form habits and change behavior, backed by Meta in its seed round. Kim's earlier career - selling enterprise software to banks at Bloomberg, then product work at Toss owner Viva Republica - taught him that performance, not motivation, was the gap in banking and insurance sales.

The early wellness product taught Kim that software only sticks when it fits how people already work. Hupo rebuilt around real-time AI coaching for banks, insurers and financial services, and now serves dozens of customers in APAC and Europe including Prudential, AXA, Manulife, HSBC, Bank of Ireland and Grab, with contracts typically expanding 3x-8x within the first six months. In January 2026, Hupo raised a $10M Series A led by DST Global Partners, with Collaborative Fund, Goodwater Capital, January Capital and Strong Ventures participating, bringing total funding to $15M for real-time coaching features, enterprise deployments and US expansion.

Scaling: a BFSI-specialized AI coaching platform with a DST-led Series A, planning US entry in the first half of 2026 and aiming beyond sales coaching toward performance coaching for teams of tens of thousands.

Pivot kept the core question - what drives human performance - but moved it from a consumer wellness app to regulated BFSI sales, where the pain is measurable and the budgets are real.

The platform was built around how banks and insurers operate, with models trained on real financial products, objections, client types and regulatory requirements from the start.

Real-time coaching solved a structural gap: managers cannot sit in on every sales conversation, so consistent feedback at scale was the wedge traditional training could not reach.

Enterprise logos plus contract economics closed the next round: Prudential, AXA, Manulife, HSBC, Bank of Ireland and Grab across APAC/Europe, with contracts expanding 3x-8x in six months.

Meta's seed backing and early behavior-change lessons shaped the product: no judgmental or abstract coaching, only feedback that fits how people already work.

A pivot lands when the original problem was right but the customer was wrong: the wellness founder kept 'performance at scale' and moved it into BFSI, where contracts expanded 3x-8x in six months.

As of September 2, 2026, Hupo is scaling: the January 2026 DST-led Series A brought total funding to $15 million and the company was planning to enter the US market in the first half of 2026. It serves dozens of financial-services customers across APAC and Europe, including Prudential, AXA, Manulife, HSBC, Bank of Ireland and Grab, with reported contract expansion of 3x-8x within the first six months. The roadmap points beyond sales coaching toward performance coaching for large teams of tens of thousands of people.