Proofs raises $2.6M to fast-track proof-of-concept phase

Proofs, which uses AI models to accelerate the proof-of-concept phase in software sales, has raised $2.6M in pre-seed financing. The round was led by Earlybird Digital East Fund with support from Expeditions Fund, Step Function Ventures, RTP Global, and a number of angel investors. 

The startup, based between San Francisco and Warsaw, tackles the slow and prohibitively expensive process of building proof-of-concept apps for potential customers. Traditionally, the process of building proof-of-concept apps for API-based products has been slow and costly, typically taking up from weeks to months and incurring expenses ranging from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Currently companies create proof-of-concept apps for only 1% of their prospects - Proofs aims to increase this.

Proofs was cofounded by Polish entrepreneurs Bartek Pucek and Zbigniew Sobiecki. Bartek is a seasoned angel investor, investing alongside Sequoia, a16z and Y-Combinator into the likes of ElevenLabs, Zeta Labs, Ramp and Wordware. Zbigniew has founded and held CTO positions at a number of tech companies, including Lite E-commerce, one of Poland’s largest ecommerce player. The two previously co-founded Forward Operators AI Lab, where they built AI/ML based services for customers like Google, Decathlon and Ten Square Games.

The Proofs team is currently made up of a team of veteran software engineers and AI researchers. The funds will go towards product development, hiring new talent and preparing the GTM with a focus on mid-market, and enterprise customers in the US.

Bartek Pucek, cofounder and CEO at Proofs, commented: “API-based companies spend millions of dollars each year on building proof-of-concept apps to convert their prospects. Still, 50-80% of all the leads churn in the pre-sales process. Engineering teams are overworked and understaffed, with limited resources, and it takes about six months for a new hire to bring value. API businesses simply don’t have the time and resources to build all the proof-of-concepts requested by prospects, so they end up leaving potential customers and money on the table.” 

“Proofs not only solves this critical problem by lowering the costs by 10x, but in doing so, changes the entire business model of how products are built and sold by automating the process through AI and making it exponentially faster. The result is that our customers can expect to see much better conversion rates and a huge increase in their sales margins. We’re delighted to have such high profile investors on our side during this early stage of growth to help us execute our vision.”

Mehmet Atici, partner at Earlybird Digital East Fund, said: “We have seen a boom in software companies from Stripe to Twilio providing APIs to make their clients' lives easier and more efficient. But no one has been building tools to make life easier for these API-first companies. Now, Proofs is tackling the biggest pain points faced by API-first companies in go-to-market by dramatically streamlining sales processes and integrations. We believe this solution has the potential to turn the way software is built and sold on its head, and we’re very excited to support Bartek, Zbigniew, and the team on their mission.”