Ghent, 2 May 2024 - Ghent-based start-up Tekst.com has developed a promising AI platform that allows large companies to automate text-based processes, such as processing high volumes of email. Today, the company announced that it is raising €700,000 from Entourage to further develop and commercialise its technology across Europe.
Ghent-based start-up Tekst.com has developed an AI platform that accurately converts unstructured text into usable data, finally allowing large enterprises to automate even the most complex back-office operations, resulting in increased productivity and employee satisfaction.
Tekst.com has already won several major customers including US global medical equipment player Becton Dickinson and large dairy cooperative Milcobel. After more than six months of being part of Entourage Studio, the company announced today that it has closed a €700,000 investment round with Entourage Capital, Pieterjan Bouten's investment fund, to further develop the product and roll it out commercially in Europe.
Repetitive and stressful tasks can now be automated
Before the advent of advanced AI, turning text into usable data was something humans had to do manually. Think of processing specific information from an email to plug into a CRM, accounting or ERP package.
The promise of AI is great, but generic LLMs (Large Language Models) like ChatGPT do nothing more than convert text to other text. Accurately interpreting unstructured text and then converting it into usable data - input that a database can work with - remained an impossible task.
Until now.
'Existing software based on recognising keywords and setting rules can automatically label about 20% of incoming mail traffic at an average company, with low accuracy. That is too little for companies to efficiently automate handling,' says Tiebe Parmentier, CTO and co-founder of Tekst.com. 'The custom-trained AI models we offer to our customers can figure out the meaning of many more messages, with higher accuracy. The fact that this eliminates repetitive tasks is not only excellent news for the companies themselves, it is also positive for employees. We take 'boring' operations out of their hands, making their work more enjoyable.'
Major customers
Tekst.com has already secured several large contracts and explicitly targets companies that want to get started with AI concretely and quickly.
'Our enterprise customers have often already automated a lot of data processes,' says Tekst.com CEO Wouter Janssen. 'But in their pursuit of touchless automation, they still hit this last wall: processing large volumes of text in emails, cases, orders and tickets automatically - but in a strictly controlled and secure way.'
Customer communication in B2B requires a careful approach, especially with large contracts, where fast and accurate communication is essential. Moreover, all agreements and rules on security and privacy must be taken into account. Tekst.com’s AI model succeeds in mapping, specifically within the company, all the knowledge needed for the correct analysis and routing of messages. It effortlessly retrieves that information from existing data systems such as SAP and Salesforce. Furthermore, the work performed by Tekst happens in the background, so employees do not have to work with yet another new tool. And finally, Tekst.com meets the required standards for security and confidentiality, such as GDPR legislation and the global ISO 27001 standard of information security.
'We have a large number of client-facing inboxes, and needed a solution that could quickly analyse and prioritise our growing email volume. Given the nature of our products, in some cases, our customers require extremely fast response times. With Tekst.com, we achieved results in just three weeks. With Outlook it was impossible, and trying to train an AI model to work with email ourselves would have taken us many months,' says Christophe Boucquet, Customer Service Digitalisation Manager at Becton Dickinson.
Global player
The investment round in Tekst.com is led by Entourage, the new investment fund of Pieterjan Bouten (ex-Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Showpad), which also supports Tekst.com through its studio model.
Pieterjan Bouten: 'Tiebe and Wouter are hugely ambitious and driven by their goal of making AI work in complex business environments. They have developed a wonderful technology that delivers many efficiency gains in a very short time. We see huge potential for the company, and we believe they can grow into a global player.'