Germany’s software giant SAP is investing again in AI startups, this time in the Berlin automation specialist n8n and the AI customer service company Parloa. Those involved do not mention specific amounts. However, n8n reports that its own valuation has reached $5.2 billion as a result of the investment.
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This has doubled in less than a year and puts n8n among the highest rated AI startups in Germany. The frontrunner remains Munich-based AI drone startup Helsing, which, according to recent reports, could soon reach a valuation of $18 billion.
Automation and AI customer service
The products from n8n and Parloa fit well into the vision of the autonomous company that SAP presented this week at the Sapphire in-house exhibition. In an autonomous company, AI-supported assistants should work hand in hand with human staff and completely take over business processes. According to the announcement, n8n’s automation tool will soon be available natively within the Joule Studio development environment on the SAP Business AI Platform. With n8n, AI workflows can be created and orchestrated visually, among other things.
According to the announcement, Parloa is not just about a strategic investment, but about product integration. Parloa’s AI agents for customer service across digital channels and call centers should be able to connect to business data and processes from the SAP Service Cloud. Parloa promises agentic customer service that can handle a high volume of interaction and acts in a very humane and brand-compliant manner. Parloa’s AI Agent Management Platform, which will support agent management from design and testing to deployment and optimization, is also making its way into SAP’s business app store.
SAP shoppt Start-ups
According to the commercial register, SAP’s shareholding in n8n increases to almost 1.3 percent. As the Handelsblatt writes, citing insiders, SAP is putting 60 million into n8n; A double-digit million sum is also said to have flowed into Parloa.
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At the beginning of May, SAP acquired the Freiburg AI startup Prior Labs, which focuses on tabular foundation models, and announced plans to acquire the US data platform Dremio. It was already announced in March that SAP wanted to take over Reltio, another data specialist from the USA.
(sigh)
