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Zero, a Helsinki-based startup founded by Tuomo Riekki and Santtu Koivumäki, has raised a $10.3 million seed round led by Primary Venture Partners. The company is developing a go-to-market (GTM) operating system designed to replace traditional Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and associated sales tools with AI agents that automate prospecting, outreach, and customer health monitoring. Zero is now generally available with a 14-day free trial and AI-assisted migration features.
Helsinki-based Zero has secured a $10.3 million seed round led by New York-based Primary Venture Partners, with participation from Inception Fund, Defiant, Greens Ventures, and founders of Lovable, Supercell, Langdock, and AMD Silo AI. The funding follows an earlier pre-seed round led by 20VC and includes backing from operators associated with Spotify, Wolt, Shopify, Dropbox, Meta, and OpenAI.
Zero is developing a GTM operating system intended to replace traditional CRM platforms and the fragmented suite of sales, prospecting, and customer-success tools. The platform utilizes AI agents to build prospect lists, conduct outbound outreach, update records, and monitor customer health, covering the customer journey from initial contact through renewal. The company states that its goal is to make the traditional CRM unnecessary by automating the manual work that typically grows alongside business scale.
The startup was founded by Tuomo Riekki, co-founder of Smartly.io, and Santtu Koivumäki, who previously led Smartly’s go-to-market operations. The founders cite their experience scaling Smartly.io to $100M in annual recurring revenue as motivation for addressing the inefficiencies in current sales software, which they describe as systems built around manual data entry rather than autonomous execution.
Zero is now generally available, offering a 14-day free trial and AI-assisted migration for users switching from existing CRM tools. During its private beta phase, the company reported that customers replaced their existing CRM and separate prospecting tools with Zero. One beta customer, Teamspective, reported closing twice as much new business and estimated that Zero’s agents eliminated the need for every third sales hire, though these specific performance metrics are self-reported by the startup and its customers.
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This funding highlights a significant shift in the enterprise software market from passive data recording systems to active, autonomous AI agents that execute business workflows. By targeting the replacement of established CRM infrastructure, Zero addresses a high-friction area in sales operations where manual data entry and tool switching consume significant labor. The involvement of prominent investors and the founders' background in scaling Smartly.io to $100M ARR suggests a credible approach to automating go-to-market functions, potentially reducing headcount requirements for sales and customer success teams.
The launch of Zero represents a concrete move toward autonomous knowledge work in the enterprise sector, specifically targeting the go-to-market function. Unlike previous AI integrations that layered capabilities onto existing CRM architectures, Zero aims to rebuild the workflow around AI agents that perform the work rather than just recording it.
This development has practical implications for sales and customer success teams, potentially allowing smaller teams to manage larger customer bases by automating routine tasks such as data entry, outreach, and health monitoring. The funding validates the investor thesis that AI can significantly reduce the operational overhead associated with customer acquisition and retention.
The involvement of high-profile investors, including the CEO of Supercell and the co-founder of Lovable, adds credibility to Zero’s approach. However, the claim that CRM will become obsolete like the fax machine is a forward-looking statement by an investor and not an established industry consensus. The actual impact will depend on Zero’s ability to deliver reliable autonomous actions in complex sales environments.
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crm_get_transaction(id='4092').An agent must create a draft calendar event for Tuesday at 2 p.m. Which evidence would establish the requested result?
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Monitor Zero's adoption metrics and customer retention rates as it transitions from private beta to general availability. Watch for competitive responses from major CRM providers like Salesforce and HubSpot, who may accelerate their own integrations. Additionally, observe whether the claimed efficiency gains, such as eliminating the need for every third sales hire, are substantiated by independent case studies or broader industry data.
Independent verification of the performance claims made by Zero and its beta customers, particularly regarding revenue growth and headcount reduction, will be crucial for assessing the platform's real-world value.
The response from incumbent CRM providers, such as Salesforce and HubSpot, will indicate whether the market accepts a standalone AI GTM system or if traditional vendors can successfully integrate similar autonomous capabilities into their existing ecosystems.
Zero’s ability to scale its AI-assisted migration process will determine how quickly it can capture market share from established CRM platforms, as switching costs and data integrity concerns remain significant barriers for enterprise customers.