A startup that replaces sales departments: how MoonAI reached a $5 million valuation

Read the story of the team creating AI agents that actually work.

Askhat Adkhamov, Almaty city, founder of MoonAI

How it all began

I am a serial founder. MoonAI is my second venture. Previously, I developed an EdTech startup, worked in tourism and consulting, and advised over one hundred and fifty businesses on building sales departments, systematization, and scaling. MoonAI was born at the intersection of this experience and the challenges faced by small and medium-sized businesses.

We help companies without technical expertise deeply integrate AI solutions into their business processes. The problem we solve is that clients often do not receive fast and high-quality responses, which leads to lost leads and customers. Another issue is the high level of routine work for sales managers and customer-facing staff, which causes burnout and turnover. Artificial intelligence can address these challenges, but in practice, over eighty-two percent of companies attempting to implement AI on their own fail — the technology ends up doing more harm than good: context is lost, and customers slip away.

Our AI solution integrates deeply into business processes and connects with any CRM or ERP system, ensuring high response accuracy and helping businesses automate workflows, replacing part of the human labor.

The company started when I was organizing a tour in London with a well-known entrepreneur from the CIS. We received over ten thousand applications and needed to process them quickly. At that time, GPT-3.5 was released, and the idea to apply AI emerged. Chatbots were not suitable, and manual sales were inefficient — the average deal was around fifteen thousand pounds. We implemented an AI solution, and it worked.

Later, friends from a business club asked us to implement similar solutions for their companies. That is how our first clients appeared, and the product developed through real-world challenges.

The team

I initially started alone to bootstrap and test the idea. Later, I brought in the first developers and invested my own funds, as well as money from the first clients, into developing the platform. Currently, the team has 19 people, 6 of whom are engineers with extensive experience in machine learning and artificial intelligence.

The company’s headquarters is registered in Delaware, with subsidiaries in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Target audience

Our target audience is owners and top managers of small and medium-sized companies that already have structured processes and dedicated departments interacting with clients. In such businesses, artificial intelligence integrates effectively and strengthens existing processes. If a system is not in place, artificial intelligence is ineffective — it has nothing to rely on, lacking context and structure. Currently, we have over 170 clients.

Incubation programs

We have gone through several accelerator programs, each of which helped us grow and scale the business.

The first was SelectUSA, held in Washington. We were the only startup from Kazakhstan participating in the program. There, we found our first potential clients and investors and took part in startup battles in San Francisco, Palo Alto, and at the annual Berkshire Hathaway meeting, where we met our first potential clients and investors from the United States.

Next was the MOST Acceleration Program, where we received not only mentorship but also an investment of $200 000.

Later, we joined the DSA Acceleration Program from IT Park Uzbekistan. As part of the program, we will receive $50 000 through SAFE, accommodation, and support for entering the Uzbekistan market. In addition, we participated in Clash of Startups in Tashkent, where we took first place and received $25 000 from IT Park Uzbekistan.

We were also selected for the Alchemist Accelerator and Hero’s Training from Draper University, but we decided not to attend in order to focus on growth in Kazakhstan.

Later, we joined the DSA program from IT Park, where we can receive $50 000 SAFE, and in the second program, Quick Startup from Nazarbayev University. We were also selected for the Go Broad program, organized by the Sustainable Innovation and Technology Foundation, which invited us to an intensive program in Silicon Valley and participation at TechCrunch Disrupt.

In addition, we became winners of the Astana Hub Battle and received the Ticket to the Future nomination from Magzhan Madiev, under which Astana Hub Ventures is investing $25 000 SAFE in us.

Achievements

We plan to bring our current growth to the target break-even point and enter the United States market with this result.

At present, our monthly recurring revenue grows by an average of 35% each month, and the company aims to maintain this pace. This summer, our valuation was $4 million, and now we are raising a bridge round at a $5 million SAFE valuation, which will allow us to prepare for large-scale growth.

Our key differentiator from competitors is deep integration into business processes and the high accuracy of our AI agents. Simple chatbots can be set up in a day, but their accuracy usually does not exceed 85 to 90%. This means that ten out of one hundred clients receive incorrect information.

Our accuracy reaches 98%, which has a direct impact on business: it increases conversion, reduces personnel costs, and boosts profits.

The challenges

Among the difficulties, the hardest stage was at the beginning, when we tried to bootstrap without investment, using our own funds, taking loans, and selling assets to keep the startup alive. It is easier now, but it has become more difficult to say “no.” For example, turning down participation in Alchemist in San Francisco or a long trip to the United States, despite the opportunities. It is important to focus on strategically significant directions.

Future plans

Our current focus is to build two automated client acquisition funnels and launch a full-fledged partner model. At the moment, we have partners, but they mostly bring in clients without further support. We want to provide them with tools and dashboards so they can independently find clients, implement solutions, and manage them.

We are creating a new profession — AI agent integrators. These are specialists who can create and implement business solutions without programming skills. This is not about replacing jobs, but about creating new, more intellectual professions.

The second focus is entering the United States market. We already work with clients in the CIS, but to achieve our ambitious goals, we need to scale. The American market is more complex and competitive, but it is also where technologies are born. Therefore, our goal is to establish a strong presence in Central Asia, reach key performance targets, and then expand into the United States. In the long term, we are also considering the MENA and Latin American markets, but the primary priority remains the United States of America.