Zelara,
a Berlin-based startup developing an AI-native learning system for lifecycle
marketing, has raised €3 million in a pre-seed funding round led by NAP, with
participation from Heartfelt and Angel Invest.
Despite
significant investment in CRM and marketing technology, many brands continue to
rely on predefined customer journeys, static segments, and rule-based campaigns
that struggle to adapt to changing customer behaviour. While existing customer
engagement platforms are designed to execute campaigns at scale, they typically
lack the ability to continuously learn from customer interactions and improve
over time.
Founded by
Nikolas Schriefer and Björn Heckel, Zelara aims to address this challenge. The
company has developed a learning system that operates on top of existing CRM
and customer engagement platforms, enabling brands to move beyond static
campaigns and broad segmentation.
The platform
continuously determines the most effective message, channel, and timing for
each individual customer, while marketers retain control over strategic
objectives and business constraints. Zelara manages the ongoing
decision-making, execution, and learning process, using customer interactions
as feedback to improve future engagement.
Björn
Heckel, co-founder of Zelara, said that years of building customer engagement
technology revealed a common limitation: most systems are designed around
campaigns and segments rather than individual customers.
We
built Zelara from the opposite starting point. Instead of optimizing campaigns
for segments, the system learns how to engage each individual customer in ways
that create more value for both the customer and the business.
Nikolas
Schriefer, co-founder of Zelara, said every customer interaction generates
valuable feedback that can be used to improve future engagement. He added that
the platform uses these signals to drive compounding gains across activation,
retention, reactivation, and customer lifetime value.
The
company has already demonstrated early results with a leading European neobank,
where its platform increased customer reactivation by 66 per cent without
requiring changes to the existing CRM infrastructure or customer journey
design.
The new
funding will be used to further develop Zelara’s AI-native learning system,
expand its capabilities across additional customer touchpoints, and accelerate
commercial growth through new partnerships, team expansion, and broader market
adoption.