From Mental Wellness to AI-Powered Sales Coaching: The Journey of Hupo
When Justin Kim, co-founder and CEO of Hupo, first launched his company about four years ago, it wasn’t selling AI-powered sales coaching to banks, finance services, or insurance companies. The company originally began as Ami, a mental wellness platform focused on how people manage pressure, form habits, and change behavior over time.
A Foundation in Performance
“I’ve always been a big sports fan – basketball, football, Formula One, MMA – and what draws me to all of them is performance. In my free time, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what actually drives human performance. People are very different, but across sports, there are clear patterns in how performance shows up,” Kim shared in an interview with TechCrunch.
His curiosity about performance gradually influenced his professional focus. Kim began to explore what drives effective performance in the workplace, identifying a recurring theme: mental resilience. This insight ultimately led him to establish a startup in 2022.
The Pivot to Sales Coaching
Early collaboration with Meta, which supported this startup during its seed round, provided Kim with valuable lessons: software solutions succeed only when they seamlessly fit into existing behaviors and routines. Tools aimed at improving performance often falter if they come across as judgmental, abstract, or disconnected from everyday work, Kim observed in discussions with TechCrunch.
These foundational ideas guided the startup through its pivot and now inform Hupo’s approach to sales coaching. Rather than aiming to replace human judgment, Hupo’s focus is on assisting individuals during critical moments within the banking, insurance, and financial services industries.
Addressing Performance at Scale
Kim clarified that the transition wasn’t as dramatic as it might appear. “The core problem in both cases is performance at scale. In banking and insurance, results 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,” he explained.
Utilizing AI technology that understands conversations in real time allows teams to receive consistent coaching, even within the highly regulated and complex nature of the industry, according to Kim.
image credits: Hupo
Funding and Market Expansion
Hupo has recently secured a $10 million Series A funding round led by DST Global Partners, alongside participation from Collaborative Fund, Goodwater Capital, January Capital, and Strong Ventures. The Singapore-based startup now boasts dozens of customers across APAC and Europe, including Prudential, AXA, Manulife, HSBC, Bank of Ireland, and Grab.
“BFSI [Banking, Financial Services and Insurance] is a notoriously difficult sector for early-stage companies, but our customers typically expand contracts 3–8x within the first six months,” Kim stated, revealing plans for expansion into the U.S. market in the first half of this year, where distribution-heavy financial models demand scalable coaching solutions.
A Background in Financial Services
Kim’s professional journey began at Bloomberg, selling enterprise software to banks, asset managers, and insurers, exposing him to the complexities of regulated sales. His subsequent role in product development at South Korean fintech, Viva Republica, further informed his understanding of how technology can transform traditional financial services.
“Hupo sits at the intersection of those experiences. I understood the buyer, the end user, and the operational reality of selling financial products,” Kim explained. “Once AI became capable of understanding context and coaching in real time, it became obvious to me that sales coaching—especially in banking and insurance—was the right place to apply it.”
Unlike many AI sales coaching tools that prioritize technology first, Hupo adopted a distinct approach by centering its platform around the operational needs of banks and insurers. “One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that, especially with large enterprises, you have to understand their business and industry in detail,” Kim highlighted, emphasizing that Hupo’s models were trained from inception on real financial products, common objections, client types, and regulatory requirements.
A Vision for the Future
With total funding now reaching $15 million since its inception, Hupo aims to utilize the new capital to enhance its product offerings, particularly in real-time coaching features, scaling enterprise-grade deployments, driving market efforts within banking, financial services, and insurance, and expanding its team.
In five years, Kim envisions Hupo extending beyond mere sales coaching, aspiring to provide large teams with valuable insights and practical guidance that can scale effectively, even across tens of thousands of individuals.
For further insights and information about Hupo’s transformative journey, click here.
Image Credit: techcrunch.com
