Wer kauft KI-Agenten? Salesforce, Cresta, Braze & Marble Cognition – Fabian Krautwurst (NAP) & Jannis Fett (HV Capital)

AI agents need a record of how work happens

Enterprise AI has a data problem. Agents cannot take over work that has never been written down, and most core processes still live in email or employees' heads. Marble Cognition is one bet that recording how work happens comes before automating it. Salesforce is buying its way into the shift, paying high multiples for agent companies because its per-seat model is threatened.

Takeaways

• Recording work is the precondition for AI agents. Munich startup Marble Cognition, founded by Felix Rösner, previously at ElevenLabs, and MIT researcher Christoph, raised more than €3m pre-seed led by Hardcore and Seedcamp. Its thesis holds that around 90 percent of core processes live in email or employees' heads.
• Marble maps processes and runs recurring cases. An app records how employees use their software and which programs interact, producing a map of processes that includes exceptions and shows where time is lost. Marble Co Workers then execute recurring cases while humans approve decisions that need judgement.
• Salesforce pays up for voice and marketing tech. Cresta cost $2.7bn, a 27x multiple on roughly $100m ARR and an offensive purchase into voice agents. Braze cost $5.7bn at 6x with a 50 percent premium and defends marketing tech. Salesforce has spent more than $15bn across eight deals this year.
• AI threatens Salesforce's per-seat business model. Fett says Salesforce's model of earning money per seat and per user is at risk if AI replaces those users. Applying Salesforce's acquisition and go-to-market engine to products like Cresta is proven, which is why strategics keep buying.
• Series B is now purely about traction. Fett says 3x growth is the bare minimum, a shift from the days of Enpal and Storyblok. Krautwurst wants product-market fit plus a plan for Germany's works council rules on recording employees.
• Rivals converge on capturing workplace processes. Krautwurst names Mimica in London and Scale AI in San Francisco as well as process mining software such as Celonis. Meta has recorded the mouse and keyboard activity of its US employees since April 2026, evidence the theme is broad.

Where voice AI companies go next

• Voice agent rounds at 60 to 80 times ARR far exceed the roughly 25 times strategics pay.
• Companies such as Parloa and Sierra must find a safe harbour or IPO.
• HV's sale of Ultimate AI to Zendesk took ARR from low double digits to triple-digit millions once Zendesk's distribution was behind it.
• Cognigy exited to NICE for roughly $950m.