The Evolution of Hupo: From Mental Wellness to AI-Powered Sales Training
I recently had the chance to chat with Justin Kim, co-founder and CEO of Hupo, a fascinating AI-powered sales training platform that’s been making waves in the banking, finance, and insurance industries. What struck me was the incredible journey Hupo has been on, from its humble beginnings as a mental wellness platform to its current status as a go-to solution for some of the world’s biggest financial institutions.
As Kim shared with me, Hupo’s origins date back to 2018 when he launched Ami, a mental wellness platform focused on helping people manage stress, form habits, and change behavior over time. While Ami was doing well, Kim’s passion for sports and his interest in what drives human efficiency led him to explore the concept of psychological resilience in the workplace. He soon realized that this concept was crucial for improving performance at scale in high-pressure industries like finance.
With Meta’s backing and a seed round, Kim gained valuable insights into what works and what doesn’t. He learned that software only succeeds when it fits seamlessly into daily life, and that tools designed to help people “improve” often fail because they’re judgmental, abstract, or disconnected from real-world challenges. These lessons have shaped Hupo’s approach to sales training, which is centered on providing practical support in the moments that matter.
The shift from a mental wellness platform to an AI-powered sales training platform wasn’t as dramatic as it might seem, Kim emphasized. “The core problem in both cases is efficiency at scale. In banking and insurance, results fluctuate not because of motivation, but because of training, feedback, and confidence differ.” Traditional training methods can’t reach everyone, and managers can’t sit in on every conversation. But with AI that understands conversations in real-time, Hupo can provide consistent training to groups, even in highly regulated and complex industries like finance.
Hupo has come a long way since its early days, having raised a whopping $10 million Series A led by DST Global Partners, Collaborative Fund, Goodwater Capital, January Capital, and Strong Ventures. The Singapore-headquartered startup now serves dozens of customers in APAC and Europe, including heavy-hitters like Prudential, AXA, Manulife, HSBC, Bank of Ireland, and Seize.
As Kim puts it, “BFSI [Banking, Financial Services and Insurance] is a notoriously tough vertical for early-stage firms, but our clients often develop contracts 3-8x within the first six months.” Hupo is set to expand into the US in the first half of this year, where distribution-heavy financial models create a strong need for scalable training.
Kim’s journey has taken him from Bloomberg to Viva Republica, where he learned the importance of building technology that’s centered on real human behavior and can reshape traditional financial services. “Hupo sits at the intersection of these experiences. I understood the customer, the top person, and the operational reality of selling financial products. Once AI became able to understand context and training in real-time, it became apparent to me that sales training—particularly in banking and insurance—was the right place to apply it.”
Many AI sales training tools start with the tech first, but Hupo took a different approach, building its platform around how banks and insurers function. “One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that, particularly with large enterprises, you must understand their business and industry intimately,” Kim added, noting that Hupo’s models were trained from the beginning on real financial products, common objections, customer types, and regulatory requirements.
The latest round brings Hupo’s total funding to $15 million since its founding in 2022. The new capital will be used to expand the product, scale business-grade deployments, grow go-to-market efforts in banking, financial services, and insurance, and build out the team.
In the future, Kim hopes to take Hupo beyond sales training and help large groups perform at scale, giving managers and staff clearer insights and practical guidance, even across tens of thousands of people. It’s an ambitious goal, but with Hupo’s track record and commitment to understanding the needs of its customers, I think they’re well on their way to achieving it.
