Duvo, an enterprise operating system designed to connect and automate disconnected business processes, has closed a $32 million Series A round led by Balderton Capital. Index Ventures, Northzone, and Credo Ventures also participated in the funding, bringing the platform's total capital raised to $48 million. The investment will fuel expansion into the US market, with initial focus on retailers and consumer packaged goods companies.
Behind Duvo is Tomáš Čupr, a Czech entrepreneur who founded and leads Rohlik Group, the European online grocery business valued at roughly $2 billion. Čupr launched Rohlik in 2014 and scaled it across multiple European markets before recognising a deeper problem: automating work in established organisations is far messier than it appears.
The operational puzzle that sparked Duvo
While building Rohlik, Čupr encountered obstacles that inspired Duvo's creation. Despite understanding AI's productivity potential, he discovered that introducing automation into an operating business was unexpectedly difficult. A core challenge was simply understanding how work actually flowed through the organisation. Staff often could not articulate their own processes in sufficient detail, especially the edge cases and exceptions.
I'd say, 'Let's build these agents. What can we automate?' But when I asked people to explain a process, including all the exceptions, it became clear that much of that knowledge lived in people's heads.
Tomáš Čupr
Even when processes could be written down, the software ecosystem was fragmented. Different systems lacked the APIs needed to communicate with one another. Teams relied on a patchwork of spreadsheets, custom applications, and email, manually shuffling data between them.
We wanted to create an enterprise super app, an operating system that sits on top of existing systems and brings everything into one place.
Čupr
Rather than replacing existing enterprise software, Duvo provides a single interface where employees can manage tasks, make decisions, approve actions, and escalate issues. The platform sits atop legacy systems without displacing them.
From undocumented work to automated processes
Duvo's approach begins with process discovery. The Duvo Clarity tool uses AI-conducted interviews with employees, screen recordings, and existing documents to map how work actually happens—including decisions and exceptions that may never have been formally documented.
AI agents then model these processes, spot automation opportunities, and flag where human judgment is still needed. Additional agents construct the automations and build interfaces tailored to individual users. The platform executes approved steps across ERP systems, supplier portals, spreadsheets, and email inboxes, leveraging APIs where they exist and working through existing software interfaces where they do not.
This method enables companies to deploy their first automated process in weeks, without large engineering teams or lengthy systems integration projects. Čupr illustrated the nuance:
Jane and John might have the same job title in merchandising, but because they work with different suppliers, their jobs are slightly different in practice.
Čupr
The platform accommodates these variations while giving managers visibility into tasks and approvals.
We're not claiming to replace the underlying systems. ERP and warehouse management systems still have their place. We're abstracting away their messy interfaces and creating something more useful on top.
Čupr
When human input is required, Duvo routes decisions to the appropriate person. Dashboards display pending approvals and completed work, eliminating manual data transfers between siloed systems.
Why Duvo needed to be independent
Although Rohlik inspired Duvo and served as an early customer, Čupr determined that developing the technology within the grocery business would have been financially unfeasible.
Rohlik could never have financed it.
Čupr
The platform demanded substantial research and development investment that would have been difficult to justify within a consumer business. Čupr saw a broader opportunity.
But I thought that if we could solve Rohlik's problems through a separate company, perhaps we could solve the same problems for everyone else.
Čupr
Rohlik became a Duvo customer, and Čupr credits the technology with driving operational transformation at the grocer.
AI as a productivity multiplier, not a headcount reducer
Čupr argues that AI's greatest opportunity lies in amplifying what employees can accomplish, rather than eliminating jobs.
For a while I measured AI in heads, counting how many people an agent could replace. It's the wrong unit.
Čupr
At Rohlik, the gains I'd point to came from work nobody had the hours for. Our planners used to check about eight at-risk products a day per market for shortages. Now every signal gets checked, around the clock.
Čupr
We think of it as raising the GDP of every employee: more value from the people a company has, not the same value from fewer of them.
Čupr
Software development exemplifies how AI can multiply individual output. In sectors like retail, where labour costs are only part of total spending, Čupr believes organisation-wide productivity gains deliver more value than workforce cuts.
You can save some money through automation, but you can create far more value by increasing productivity.
Čupr
He also rejects the premise that AI will entirely replace human jobs.
I don't believe there's a world where AI simply does everyone's job from beginning to end. But it can dramatically increase what people are capable of achieving.
Čupr
Scaling enterprise AI without armies of engineers
As enterprise AI competition intensifies, Čupr sees Duvo's ability to operate without large deployment teams as a critical edge. Many AI vendors rely on forward-deployed engineers embedded inside customer organisations to understand their operations and roll out technology. Čupr believes that model will become unsustainable.
Eventually, enterprises will question the sustainability of paying for dozens or hundreds of engineers to work inside their organisations, absorbing their knowledge.
Čupr
Duvo aims to embed process discovery, automation development, and deployment into the product itself.
We want the product itself to do the work.
Čupr
Advances in AI models are making this increasingly possible. Tasks that once demanded extensive engineering effort can now be handled directly by software, potentially lowering implementation costs.
Agentic AI's sustainability question
The enterprise AI market is crowded, and Čupr is cautious about reading current customer growth as proof of long-term viability.
Some companies have significant traction today, but they may struggle when their contracts come up for renewal a year from now.
Čupr
He draws a parallel to the online grocery investment boom of 2021, when companies such as Gorillas and Getir achieved valuations that exceeded Rohlik's.
I saw something similar in online grocery. In 2021, I looked at the valuations of Gorillas and Getir with envy. Of course I wished Rohlik had those valuations.
Čupr
Čupr expects a similar correction in the AI market as companies face pressure to prove sustainable economics.
When the market settles, the winners will be the companies that can deliver the most value at a sustainable cost.
Čupr
Why many agentic AI projects may fail
Čupr aligns with Gartner's forecast that more than 40 per cent of agentic AI projects will be cancelled by the end of 2027 due to rising costs, unclear business value, and inadequate risk controls. He believes security, implementation costs, and the ability to demonstrate measurable results will increasingly separate AI providers that survive from those that do not.
Duvo is model-agnostic, allowing customers to switch AI models without rebuilding workflows. Organisations with stricter security or data sovereignty requirements can run open-weight models on dedicated GPUs, connect models hosted in their own cloud or on-premises infrastructure, or use existing approved AI endpoints.
The platform records approvals and changes made to connected enterprise systems, creating an audit trail. Duvo holds SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, and ISO 42001 certifications, and is available to US customers through Microsoft's Azure Marketplace.
To manage operating costs, Duvo selects different open-weight and proprietary models based on each task's specific needs. Čupr believes AI deployment economics will become increasingly critical as the market matures.
I believe we'll see significant disruption among AI companies that have raised billions but ultimately prove too expensive to operate.
Čupr
Beyond retail: Banking, insurance, and energy
Duvo works with customers including Morrisons, Holland & Barrett, Boden, Notino, and Allegro. The company claims its technology has generated more than $100 million in value for customers across finance, supply chains, customer service, marketing, and HR.
At Notino, the European online beauty retailer, Duvo says the reconciliation of supplier bonuses worth approximately $45 million annually has been compressed from 70 days to 15, while the specialist time required per cycle has fallen from around 120 hours to fewer than 10.
Although Duvo emerged from the challenges of running an online grocery business, its technology is now being deployed in banking, insurance, and energy. Čupr argues that the underlying problems are consistent across industries: fragmented systems, undocumented workflows, and employees spending significant time on repetitive administrative tasks.
A lot of agentic AI companies build agents and then ask businesses to change their operations to accommodate them. We take the opposite approach. We meet companies where they are.
Čupr
He gave the example of finance teams spending days reconciling information across multiple spreadsheets.
Those employees are already overwhelmed, just trying to close the books and make sure everyone gets paid.
Čupr
Expansion into the US and beyond
Duvo is pushing into the US market, where Čupr observes a different appetite for enterprise technology adoption.
The US is generally more willing to try something new, but customers can be less sticky.
Čupr
European companies, by contrast, may take longer to approve new software but tend to remain loyal once they have committed. Duvo is also exploring Asia, though Čupr says it is premature to draw conclusions about the region.
Duvo currently has around 70 employees and plans to direct most new investment towards sales, marketing, and partnerships. The company has hired a senior vice-president to lead commercial expansion and is building relationships with consulting firms. Čupr sees potential for firms such as Deloitte, BCG, and Bain to use Duvo Clarity to identify operational problems and automation opportunities within their clients' businesses.
We've been relatively invisible until now, but I think that's going to change.
Čupr
Two executives are leading the US expansion. Michael Green has joined as Senior Vice President, Go-to-Market, from Databricks, where he previously held a senior vice-president role at Salesforce. Spencer Insolia has joined as Managing Director, US, following roles as President of Kmart and Managing Director at Accenture.
Looking beyond the AI hype
Čupr expects AI to become a routine component of enterprise technology rather than a standalone selling point.
At some point, we won't talk about AI as something special. It will simply be like electricity or the internet.
Čupr
He believes the industry will increasingly face the same economic scrutiny as other businesses, including profitability, customer retention, and long-term value creation.
I'm building a legacy company, not one designed to raise money quickly and sell.
Čupr
As someone who has spent years building businesses, I feel a responsibility to talk about increasing the productivity of employees and the collective intelligence of companies.
Čupr
Rob Moffat, Partner at Balderton Capital, also highlighted the difficulty of deploying AI across large organisations.
Getting AI agents to work reliably across the enterprise remains incredibly difficult. Duvo's unique ability is in how it uses AI to capture how work actually happens in the enterprise and what the causes of loss are. Duvo then automates these processes in the same integrated system. This is only possible with the deep operational experience of the founder, Tomáš.
Rob Moffat, Balderton Capital
Source: Tech.eu
