When Justin Kim, co-founder and CEO of Hupo, introduced his company roughly four years ago, its focus was not on delivering AI-driven sales coaching to banking, finance, or insurance firms. Initially named Ami, the business was a mental wellness platform centered on how individuals handle pressure, develop habits, and evolve their behavior over time. "I've always been passionate about sports—basketball, football, Formula One, MMA—and what captivates me is performance. In my spare time, I've devoted considerable thought to understanding what truly fuels human performance." This personal interest gradually steered his professional direction. Kim began investigating the drivers of workplace performance, and a recurring theme emerged: mental resilience. That insight inspired him to establish a startup in 2022.

These foundational ideas persisted through the company's strategic shift and now define Hupo's method for sales coaching, which emphasizes supporting people during critical moments in banking, insurance, and financial services rather than replacing human judgment. According to Kim, this transition was more natural than it might appear. "The central challenge in both scenarios is performance at scale. In banking and insurance, outcomes fluctuate not due to motivation but because training, feedback, and confidence levels vary. Conventional coaching can't extend to everyone, and managers can't monitor every interaction."

Kim highlighted that AI capable of interpreting conversations in real time now enables teams to obtain consistent coaching, even within a heavily regulated and intricate industry.

Hupo has secured a $10 million Series A investment led by DST Global Partners, with contributions from Collaborative Fund, Goodwater Capital, January Capital, and Strong Ventures. Additionally, the Singapore-based startup currently supports numerous clients across APAC and Europe, including Prudential, AXA, Manulife, HSBC, Bank of Ireland, and Grab. "BFSI [Banking, Financial Services and Insurance] is famously challenging for early-stage companies, but our customers often expand their contracts by 3 to 8 times within the first six months," the founder remarked. "We plan to enter the U.S. market in the first half of this year, where distribution-intensive financial models generate a significant demand for scalable coaching."

Kim launched his career at Bloomberg, selling enterprise software to banks, asset managers, and insurers, where he observed the complexities of regulated sales. He later contributed to product development at South Korean fintech Viva Republica, the creator of Toss, gaining insight into how technology designed around actual user behavior can transform traditional financial services. "Hupo exists at the crossroads of those experiences. I comprehended the buyer, the end user, and the operational realities of selling financial products," Kim explained. "Once AI advanced to the point of understanding context and providing real-time coaching, it became clear to me that sales coaching—particularly in banking and insurance—was the ideal application."

Many AI sales coaching tools prioritize technology first, Kim noted, but Hupo adopted a distinct strategy by constructing its platform around the operational needs of banks and insurers. "One of the most important lessons I've learned is that, especially with large enterprises, you must deeply understand their business and industry," he added, pointing out that Hupo's models were trained from the outset on real financial products, typical objections, client profiles, and regulatory standards. This latest funding round increases total investment to $15 million since the company's inception in 2022. The new capital will be allocated to enhancing its product with features like real-time coaching, scaling enterprise-level deployments, expanding go-to-market initiatives in banking, financial services, and insurance, and growing the team.

Looking ahead five years, Kim envisions Hupo extending beyond sales coaching to assist large teams in performing at scale, offering managers and employees clearer insights and actionable guidance, even across organizations with tens of thousands of people.