In a world where customers expect near instant replies on WhatsApp, Instagram and web chat, small businesses can easily fall behind. Enter Keplero AI, a lean Italian startup building conversational AI to automate customer service across channels. This article explains who they are, how their technology works, the team behind it, recent funding, and why organisations should pay attention.
What is Keplero AI?
Keplero AI is a customer service automation platform that provides intelligent virtual assistants for businesses. The product is designed to operate across multiple channels such as website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram Direct, Messenger, email and phone. Companies can therefore offer a consistent experience to customers wherever they choose to interact.
Unlike single channel chatbots, Keplero AI aims to be truly omnichannel. One assistant, many touchpoints, one shared knowledge base. This reduces duplicated work, keeps conversation context intact, and gives customers a seamless journey from social message to a phone call if needed.
Learn more about the company on their official site: Keplero AI.
A human, not robotic, voice
What makes Keplero AI pleasant for both agents and customers is the emphasis on a human, conversational tone. The team builds assistants that do not feel like canned scripts. They sound helpful, keep context, and hand over to a human agent when required. This mixed approach (automation plus human oversight) is increasingly seen as the pragmatic path. Deploy AI for routine queries, keep humans for nuance.
Founders and the team
Keplero AI was founded in October 2023 by Gabriele Feudo and Giovanni Davalli, who brought a mix of product and operations experience to the startup. The core leadership is complemented by technical staff responsible for engineering, natural language processing (NLP) and customer success.
The team’s approach, small, focused and in house, lets them iterate quickly and respond to customer feedback without long procurement cycles. That agility is a competitive advantage in a fast moving field.
How the technology works
At heart, Keplero AI combines three building blocks:
- NLP and intent detection. The assistant interprets what users mean, not just the exact words they type. This helps handle typos, slang and cross language queries.
- Omnichannel orchestration. Messages from WhatsApp, Instagram, web chat and email are centralised so the assistant keeps track of a single conversation thread.
- Human fallback and analytics. When the assistant is unsure, it seamlessly routes the query to a human agent and records the interaction so the AI learns from real cases.
This combination reduces response times and improves first contact resolution. Routine questions are automated, while complex ones get a human touch.
Funding and traction
Keplero AI is still early stage but has already attracted investment and a growing customer base. The company has been particularly active in Italy and claims solid traction among small and medium businesses.
Keplero AI is still early stage but has already attracted investment and a growing customer base. In March 2024, the startup announced a seed funding round of €400,000, led by 40Jemz Ventures alongside a group of business angels, which was publicly reported in the Italian startup press. Before this, the company sustained its operations through early revenues from onboarding customers and service fees, effectively bootstrapping growth during its first months of activity in 2023 and early 2024. As of now, no other formal investment rounds have been disclosed, though the team continues to expand with a mix of revenue and targeted angel support. This seed funding has provided the resources to improve its technology, hire talent, and prepare for wider market expansion.
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Strengths and opportunities
- Channel coverage. Many competitors focus on single channels. Keplero’s omnichannel approach is more practical for businesses that receive enquiries from a variety of places.
- Practical automation. Keplero focuses on automating what really matters, namely repetitive, high volume enquiries, rather than trying to automate everything.
- Local market fit. Being Italian rooted gives Keplero credibility in the local market where language nuances matter. This can be a springboard for wider European growth.
Opportunities for Keplero include deeper CRM integrations, improved analytics for sentiment and churn prediction, and expansion into new European markets.
Challenges and risks
- Crowded market. The conversational AI and chatbot market attracts many players, from large cloud providers to specialist startups. Keplero must keep differentiating by focusing on superior customer outcomes.
- Data governance. Handling customer conversations raises privacy and compliance issues, particularly GDPR in Europe. Keplero will need robust data controls and transparency to build trust.
- Scaling quality. As the customer base grows, maintaining hand over quality and keeping the assistant accurate across industries can be challenging.
Who should consider Keplero AI?
Keplero AI is well suited to small and medium sized organisations that:
- receive repetitive customer enquiries across multiple channels,
- want faster response times without hiring many extra agents, and
- are looking for a turnkey solution that centralises conversational data.
Larger enterprises may evaluate Keplero for specific use cases or pilot programmes, particularly if they value a nimble partner that can adapt quickly.
Final thoughts
Keplero AI is a tidy example of a modern European startup trying to solve a pragmatic problem with AI. The goal is to improve customer service while keeping humans in the loop. Their seed funding and early revenue show market interest, and their omnichannel approach answers a real pain point for businesses.
If you run a small or medium business and spend too much time answering the same questions again and again, Keplero AI is worth a look. For investors and partners, watch their expansion beyond Italy and their ability to maintain quality as they scale.