Souk Raises $1.6M to Build AI Agent for B2B Partnership Management

London-based B2B software startup Souk has raised $1.6 million in pre-seed funding to develop an AI-powered platform designed to help companies manage and reactivate dormant business partnerships.

Sure Valley Ventures led the round, with participation from Antler, Fuel Ventures and strategic angel investors from the B2B software industry.

The new capital will enhance Coco’s core AI architecture and advance its proprietary AI-driven partnership management.

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Enabling Partner Management Workflows

founded in 2025 by Leo Crowe (former Deel), Sofia Hamilton (former BlackRock), and Ayo Alfonso (former GitHub), Souk provides an AI-powered partnership management solution. Its flagship product, Coco, is an autonomous agent that automates sourcing, engagement, performance tracking, and payouts, helping companies maximize returns from their current partner networks.

“Partnerships are how most business gets done, yet the software supporting them has barely evolved. Companies spend enormous energy signing partners only to watch 80% of them go silent. With Souk, we are building Coco to handle the heavy lifting, keeping partners active and turning dormant networks into predictable revenue engines,” Crowe, CEO and co-founder, said.

The B2B startup works with companies that rely on partnerships for growth but still manage them with spreadsheets, email, and manual processes. According to Souk, many businesses focus on finding new partners while existing ones go quiet. As a result, companies miss chances to get more value from partners they already have.

At the center of Souk’s platform is Coco, an autonomous AI agent that helps manage key parts of the partner relationship. The technology can source new partners, keep them engaged, monitor performance, and handle payments. The startup aims to cut the manual work of running partner programs and help companies keep more partners active.

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Souk’s Founders and How the Capital Will Be Deployed

The founding team brings deep experience in partnerships, cross-border capital, and AI infrastructure. Leo Crowe, CEO, is British. He began his career at Anthemis Group investing in insurtech and fintech startups. After that, he served for several years as an Officer in the British Army Reserves. He then joined Deel as an SDR and within two years led the UKI partnerships function. The playbooks he built there still generate millions in revenue today.

Sofia Hamilton, COO, is British Venezuelan. She spent several years at BlackRock as an investor on the Emerging Markets team. In that role, she assessed and managed exposure across sectors to cross-border capital flows, FX risk, and financial infrastructure in high-growth markets. 

Technical co-founder Ayo is Nigerian and brings strong software engineering experience. A former engineer at GitHub and founding CTO at Tymbah, he built and shipped AI systems for desktop platforms. He has also worked on identity, fraud prevention, and banking infrastructure at Trudenty and Union Bank of Nigeria.

“We backed Souk from inception because the team combines exceptional operational execution with deep, hands-on category experience,” Adam French, Partner at Antler, said in a press release. 

“Leo built high-performing partnership playbooks at scale, Sofia brings rigorous institutional market insight, and Ayo has proven technical experience shipping AI infrastructure. They are uniquely qualified to build the category-defining platform for AI-powered partnership management, and we are proud to continue supporting their journey.”

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Souk plans to allocate the new capital to product development. Specifically, the company is focusing on enhancing the core architecture of its AI agent, Coco, and advancing its proprietary AI-driven approach to partnership management.

Main Image: Ayo Alfonso, Leo Crowe, and Sofia Hamilton, Souk founders. Image Credit: Souk