Meta-Backed Hupo Finds Growth After Pivoting From Mental Wellness to AI Sales Coaching

When Justin Kim, co-founder and CEO of Hupo, first launched the company about four years ago, it was not focused on AI-powered sales coaching for banks, financial services firms, or insurers. The startup initially launched as Ami, a mental wellness platform focused on how people manage pressure, build habits, and change behaviour over time.

“I’ve always been a big sports fan — basketball, football, Formula One, MMA — and what draws me to all of them is performance,” Kim said in an interview. “Across different sports, there are clear patterns in how performance shows up, even though people themselves are very different.”

That interest gradually evolved into a professional focus. Kim began exploring what drives workplace performance, with mental resilience emerging as a recurring theme. That thinking led him to found the company in 2022.

Early work with Meta, which backed the startup in its seed round, helped shape some key lessons, Kim said. Software works best when it fits naturally into how people already live and work, and tools aimed at “improvement” often fail when they feel judgmental, abstract, or disconnected from day-to-day responsibilities.

Those insights carried through the company’s pivot and now define Hupo’s approach to sales coaching. Rather than replacing human judgment, the platform is designed to support employees during critical moments, particularly in banking, insurance, and financial services.

Kim said the transition from mental wellness to sales coaching was less dramatic than it might appear. “The core problem in both cases is performance at scale,” he said. “In banking and insurance, outcomes vary not because of motivation, but because training, feedback, and confidence differ. Traditional coaching can’t reach everyone, and managers can’t sit in on every conversation.”

Advances in AI that can understand conversations in real time now make it possible to deliver consistent coaching, even in highly regulated and complex industries, he added.

Image Credits: Hupo

Hupo recently raised a $10 million Series A round led by DST Global Partners, with participation from Collaborative Fund, Goodwater Capital, January Capital, and Strong Ventures. The Singapore-headquartered company now serves dozens of customers across Asia-Pacific and Europe, including Prudential, AXA, Manulife, HSBC, Bank of Ireland, and Grab.

“Banking, financial services, and insurance is a notoriously difficult vertical for early-stage companies,” Kim said. “But our customers typically expand contracts three to eight times within the first six months.” He added that Hupo plans to expand into the U.S. in the first half of the year, where distribution-heavy financial models create strong demand for scalable coaching tools.

Before founding Hupo, Kim began his career at Bloomberg, selling enterprise software to banks, asset managers, and insurers, gaining firsthand experience in regulated sales environments. He later worked on product development at Viva Republica, the company behind Toss, where he learned how technology built around real user behaviour can transform traditional financial services.

“Hupo sits at the intersection of those experiences,” Kim said. “I understood the buyer, the end user, and the operational realities of selling financial products. Once AI became capable of understanding context and coaching in real time, sales coaching — especially in banking and insurance — became the obvious application.”

Kim noted that many AI sales coaching platforms start with the technology and look for a problem to solve. At the same time, eHupo built its system around how banks and insurers actually operate. From the start, its models were trained on real financial products, common objections, customer profiles, and regulatory requirements.

The latest funding brings Hupo’s total capital raised to $15 million since its founding in 2022. The company plans to use the new funds to expand its product capabilities, including real-time coaching features; scale enterprise deployments; grow go-to-market efforts in banking, financial services, and insurance; and continue building its team.

Looking ahead, Kim said he wants Hupo to move beyond sales coaching and help large organisations improve performance at scale, providing managers and employees with clearer insights and practical guidance across teams numbering in the tens of thousands.