Interloom, a Munich-based AI startup, has secured $3 million in seed funding from Air Street Capital, a London-based VC firm with a focus on AI investments. Interloom, spearheaded by Fabian Jakobi, aims to disrupt the market of robotic process automation (RPA). This sector, which automates repetitive business tasks, has become a major investment target, with businesses reportedly spending $6 billion annually.

Leading companies, such as UiPath which is valued at $3.5 billion, along with Appian, Blue Prism, and IBM, provide high-demand RPA solutions. However, Interloom intends to redefine the field, building on advancements in large language models and AI assistants.

Jakobi’s vision stems from his earlier venture Boxplot, an AI software company specializing in data extraction from unstructured documents, which he sold to Hyperscience in 2021. He believes AI methodologies used in the past, such as extracting data from video recordings or notes, could now be used to train AI to understand professional workflows. Deploying AI in this manner could enable the automation of tasks that require higher-level value assessment, which conventional RPA approaches struggle with.

The limitations of current RPA tech are evident in their inability to flexibly adapt to differing business contexts. Jakobi uses the example of automatic nondisclosure agreement generation and distribution processes. These processes often operate off rigidly standardized templates, causing the inability to cater to specific business nuances. According to Jakobi, the solution could be to train AI software on real-world business operations rather than on idealized workflows.

Interloom plans to implement its AI software as a productivity enhancer rather than a human replacement. Jakobi believes AI robots could augment human employee output by up to 30 times while humans provide quality control checks.

Initially targeting the medium-sized companies integral to Germany’s economy, Interloom has plans to expand globally. The startup, which currently employs ten people, is aggressively hiring.

Nathan Benaich, founder and general partner of Air Street Capital was confident that in the future every sector would be built AI-first, with the Interloom team having a unique understanding of automating complex workflows.

Source: Exclusive: A German AI startup hoping to be a UiPath killer secures $3 million in seed funding .