PitchIT No. 15 - Zefi
This edition covers Zefi: a startup using AI to help product teams read their users' minds.
Hello! I’m Alessio from Ulixes Capital Partners and this is PitchIT, a biweekly snapshot describing one of the most interesting early-stage companies in the Italian startup ecosystem in 3 minutes or less. In this issue, we'll be taking a look at Zefi: a startup using AI to help product teams read their users' minds.
In a sentence:
Zefi transforms your user feedback into value
Problem:
Extracting insights from customer feedback is hard because information is scattered across multiple sources (including surveys, reviews across multiple channels, tickets in customer support tools, and much, much more). The volume of feedback is generally too overwhelming to manage without the support of AI tools or the effort of entire dedicated teams. This complexity leaves Product and Customer Experience (CX) leaders blind to what their customers want, resulting in confusion and customer unhappiness.
This reality is illustrated by the fact that 79% of customer feedback goes unheard and that 90% of CX leaders have difficulty determining where to start improving their customer experience. On the other hand, companies which consistently invest in a CX solution show, on average, 60% higher profitability and 1.7x faster growth than those that don’t.
Solution:
Zefi.ai is a platform that allows companies to automate the analysis of all conversations and points of interactions with their customers in just a few seconds through AI algorithms. Zefi allows companies to centralize their feedback, tag and categorize them, monitor trends over time, and extract real-time information to improve their product and user experiences.
In summary, it helps identify growth and cost reduction opportunities hidden in companies’ user feedback, transforming overwhelming amounts of data into real untapped value.
Why now?
The recent generative AI explosion has enabled the creation of products which are increasingly capable of extracting insights from large amounts of data. These high-powered LLM models, when provided with aggregated real-time data from fragmented sources and carefully structured to respond to the needs of product CX teams, form an unparalleled solution.
Market:
The market for customer experience solutions is massive and growing rapidly, with 74% of companies reporting increased investments into the space in H1 2023. Companies like Medallia and Qualtrics, legacy solutions valued at billions of dollars with yearly contracts that often surpass 6 figures, are failing to meet customers’ expectations and to adapt to market trends, providing a compelling opportunity for new entrants into the space.
Business model:
With Zefi, companies only pay for the data and integrations they actually use. With an unlimited number of seats, the analyses derived from this data can be shared across all teams in the organization to create a culture which emphasizes the customer experience from top to bottom.
Team:
Aurora Maggio, CEO and Co-Founder: Previously, Aurora was a member of the founding team at Nebuly.ai, helping launch the startup’s solution to a community of >1000 AI engineers, and Teaching Assistant for a joint course of MIT and Politecnico di Milano. She holds an MSc in Architecture, with a focus on parametric architecture and computational design.
Daniele Borlizzi, Co-Founder: Previously, Daniele worked in Strategy and Business Development at InSilicoTrials, as a Digital PMO in CNH Industrial, and an Racing Team Engineer at Scuderia Ferrari F1. He holds an MBA from Collège des Ingénieurs, with a focus on entrepreneurship, and an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from Politecnico di Torino.
Leonardo Vezzati, Co-Founder: Previously, Leonardo was a Strategy & Operations Manager at Homa Games after having co-founded BeGiotto.com. He holds a BSc in Management and Business Administration from Università Bocconi.
Alessandros Fokianos, Co-Founder: Previously, Alexandros was a Product Manager and early employee at Scalapay. He was also the Italian Rubik’s Cube Champion in 2018.
Nicola Sebastianelli, Co-Founder: Previously, Nicola was a Product Engineer at Gucci and interned as an Aero Performance ML & Software Engineer at Scuderia Ferrari F1. He holds a double degree MSc in Computer Science and Engineering from Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna and Polytech Nice Sophia.
Traction/Achievements:
In a few months short months since its founding, Zefi’s team has developed a product currently in use by a number of multinational paying customers, with long waitlist of potential customers already lined up.
Took part in the Vento Venture Building program and backed by Exor Ventures.
Official partners with AWS Loft and NVIDIA Inception.
Basic info:
Company Name: Zefi S.r.l.
Founding Date: September 2023
Headquarters: Milan, Italy
P.IVA: 05303800758
Employee Count: 5 FTE across Barcelona, Milan, Rome, and Brussels
Past Investors: Exor Ventures
Stage: Pre-Seed
Contact info:
For more information about Zefi, please reach out to Aurora:
Email: aurora@zefi.ai
Website: zefi.ai
If you’d like to get in contact with us, please feel free to leave a comment or send us an email at pitchit@substack.com
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