Conduct raises $60m Series A co-led by Index Ventures and ICONIQ, with SAP joining as strategic investor.
Conduct says the round was preemptive and follows a new global partnership with BCG that pulls it into BCG's big SAP accounts.
SAP named Conduct its preferred AI transformation partner and is rolling it out globally, driving Conduct's second headquarters in New York.
Conduct raises $60m as SAP pushes it into accounts
Conduct is betting that the enterprise system layer survives AI, and it raised $60m to be the layer on top of it. The company connects the business side and IT across the dozens of systems that run a large company's operations, starting with SAP. SAP vetted Conduct against its competitors, named it a preferred AI partner, and is pushing it into accounts worldwide, which is what drew investors in and produced a round Haas did not need. The sell-off in enterprise software is, in his view, an overreaction, because migrations take a decade and agents need the context locked inside the systems companies already run.
Takeaways
Conduct raised $60m without needing the money. Index Ventures and ICONIQ co-led the round, with SAP joining as a strategic investor. It was entirely preemptive, and the first term sheet arrived the day before the first investment committee meeting was due.
SAP's distribution drives Conduct's growth. SAP covers any large enterprise in the world closely and is rolling Conduct out across its accounts. That pull brings Conduct into BCG's big SAP customers and into SAP's largest US accounts.
The enterprise software sell-off is an overreaction. Haas says the core system layer will not be disrupted because migrations take years or more than a decade. Agents will run on top of legacy systems and need the context inside them.
Conduct connects the business side and IT. Large companies run operations defined in dozens of customized systems, from Salesforce and SAP to MES and logistics. Conduct is where the two sides collaborate, and SAP came first because follow-on systems are easier to crack.
Partnerships work only as your own accounts. Conduct aims to be strategically relevant to each partner instead of one vendor in a catalogue. One of the world's biggest logistics companies was live within twenty-four hours and asked to buy before its first training.
New York is now a second headquarters. SAP pushed Conduct into its biggest US accounts, so the founders split their time between New York and London with an engineering team there. Haas expects Conduct to be fully cross-Atlantic this year.
Hiring spans engineering, sales and operations. Conduct is hiring enterprise account executives who have run complex sales cycles, deployment strategists, and engineers in London and New York, plus HR, marketing and growth roles. Haas pays a 20k referral bonus.
How Conduct won SAP
SAP ran a sophisticated process against all of Conduct's competitors, including a technical deep dive.
Conduct's engineers worked through the night for a week and won on every dimension.
Tap a name to go there · tap a line to see why they are linked
On this episode 2
Show 1
SAP named Conduct its preferred partner for the whole AI transformation space.
Conduct is on track to become an endorsed app, where SAP earns credits for the Conduct revenue it brings in.