In December 2025, Duvo.ai, founded by the former leadership team of the European grocery unicorn Rohlik, announced securing $15 million in seed funding. This news caught my interest not just as a startup founder but as someone always evaluating advancements in business and automation. Tomas Čupr, the brain behind Rohlik, leads Duvo with fellow co-founders Marek Paris and Martin Pecha. The trio aims to streamline retail operations through targeted automation using artificial intelligence.
For those unfamiliar, retail isn’t the easiest playground. It’s a maze of manual tasks, tangled systems, and constant inefficiencies. The Duvo.ai platform intends to solve these problems by offering business-ready AI assistants that eliminate tedious work like reconciling invoices or activating product promotions. Let’s dive deeper into why this could matter for you.
What Duvo.ai Brings to the Table
Duvo.ai’s automation platform stands out because it targets a very niche problem, how retail data management fits into outdated systems. Unlike generic automation tools attempting to serve everyone, Duvo operates in a hyper-targeted environment. With backing from investors, including Index Ventures, Credo Ventures, and Northzone, its seed-round success suggests there's room in the market for AI tools that make retail operations smarter and faster.
Here are some numbers to explain their early impact:
- Retailers working with Duvo reported 40% reductions in manual tasks during internal trials.
- Users can deploy Duvo AI assistants “in weeks, not years,” according to Čupr.
- Their focus on retail-specific workflow automation, like supplier onboarding or resolving invoice mismatches, fits what many startups and medium-sized retailers desperately need, a tool that works with limited resources.
For small businesses that mirror this retail grind, tools like Duvo present a unique opportunity to cut operational clutter without deep engineering expertise. If you’re building or scaling a business, ask yourself: what repetitive tasks waste your team’s energy, and how would trimming those tasks improve your bottom line?
Lessons for Female Entrepreneurs in Europe
As a Netherlands-based founder bootstrapping my startups, the Duvo story carrying themes of efficiency resonates strongly. Balancing ambition with daily operations is everything. If you want to pivot toward smarter workflows or if your business feels stuck managing disorganized systems, learn from how specialized tools like Duvo can accelerate processes without expensive IT setups.
Some lessons that resonate for women entrepreneurs in particular:
- Specialize, Don’t Generalize. Female founders often feel pressure to appease broader customer needs or market demands. Duvo’s success reminds us that focusing on one industry or problem first can be the smartest play. Grow smart before growing big.
- Make Processes Work for You. Many businesses waste time on manual work because that’s how things “have always been done.” If there’s inefficiency, fix it strategically. Automating one small task can free up hours each week, shifting attention toward growth or creativity.
- Find Unlocks for Team Time. Whether your team consists of freelancers or full-time colleagues, don’t undervalue the morale impact of freeing people from unnecessary drudgery. When work feels rewarding rather than draining, both retention and results improve.
Avoid These Mistakes
In working with both startups and established entrepreneurs, I’ve seen plenty of operational missteps worth avoiding. Running an overly complicated backend operation can break teams. So how can you learn from Duvo.ai’s launch?
- Buying Tools Without Purpose: Don't grab software solutions just because competitors use them. First evaluate whether a tool, like Duvo’s AI-powered assistants, answers any specific operational pain points your business faces.
- Ignoring Scalability: Sometimes founders underestimate tech scalability. Duvo targets businesses of all sizes, but scaling your startup often depends on systems designed to grow with you.
- Not Asking for Success Metrics: If you’re trialing any solution, Duvo.ai or otherwise, demand clarity on what success looks like. If a tool doesn't reduce costs or team effort meaningfully, it’s a problem.
A How-To Guide for Building Smarter Systems
If tasks keep piling up without resolution, stealing your team’s bandwidth, here’s how to rethink that:
- Audit Your Operations: Write down where your team spends unnecessary time on repetitive operations. This could be handling emails, data entry, or supplier communication.
- Explore Industry-Specific Tools: Platforms like Duvo.ai are designed to address efficiency gaps in retail. Other industries likely have similar niche tools emerging. Stay informed by reading blogs tailored to your sector.
- Implementation in Baby Steps: Big changes can feel overwhelming, even for seasoned founders. Start automating one task well before expanding the system into broader workflows. Experimentation minimizes rollout mishaps.
European Context and Potential
One reason Duvo.ai’s launch is particularly relevant for entrepreneurs across Europe is the regional focus on adapting legacy operations. Europe houses many retail establishments still working with fragmented systems built decades ago. Startups leveraging AI don’t only support efficiency in these setups, they empower founders to compete globally.
For Europe-based women building businesses, this hits close to home. The EU boasts incredible grants and incubators designed to nurture female entrepreneurship. Learning how to align these resources with smarter tech choices can be pivotal. Between Duvo.ai’s funding climb and success stories of women-led businesses tackling tech innovation challenges here, it’s clear change is happening.
Final Thoughts
As both tech evolves and industries tighten their workforces, simplifying operations isn’t just about trimming costs; it’s about keeping businesses viable. Whether you’re running a retail-based startup or another small business, stories like Duvo.ai’s reflect this growing emphasis on optimization within reach. When I see founders use software to create better working environments for their teams, I realize how much time and mental energy we free up to focus on problem-solving.
For women entrepreneurs reading this, especially those bootstrapping, consider the tools smart automation might bring to your business. Even platforms built for other sectors could spark ideas that lead to growth.
FAQ
1. Who are the founders of Duvo.ai?
Duvo.ai was co-founded by Tomas Čupr (CEO), Marek Paris (CPTO), and Martin Pecha (COO), all former executives from the European grocery unicorn, Rohlik. Learn more about the Duvo.ai founders
2. How much funding did Duvo.ai secure in the seed round?
Duvo.ai secured $15 million in seed funding in December 2025 to accelerate their AI platform for retail automation. Discover more about Duvo.ai’s funding
3. Which investors participated in the funding round?
Index Ventures led the seed funding round with participation from Credo Ventures, Northzone, Puzzle Ventures, and angel investors like Roy Reznik, David Singleton, Ajay Kavan, and Kieran Flanagan. Learn more about Index Ventures and other investors
4. What problem does Duvo.ai aim to solve?
Duvo.ai focuses on automating repetitive tasks in retail operations such as invoice reconciliation, supplier onboarding, and activation of product promotions, addressing inefficiencies in legacy retail systems. Explore Duvo.ai’s automation impact
5. What makes Duvo.ai stand out from other automation platforms?
Unlike generic automation tools, Duvo.ai is a highly targeted AI-native platform created specifically for retail operations, deployable within weeks and compatible with existing systems like SAP and spreadsheets. Read about Duvo.ai’s niche approach
6. How much reduction in manual tasks was reported during Duvo.ai’s trials?
Retailers using Duvo.ai reported up to a 40% shift away from manual tasks during internal trials. Discover Duvo.ai’s early results
7. What industries does Duvo.ai focus on?
Duvo.ai primarily targets the retail and consumer goods industries, solving operational bottlenecks by leveraging AI automation solutions tailored to these sectors. Learn more about Duvo.ai’s industry focus
8. How does Duvo.ai simplify automation for non-IT users?
Duvo.ai enables business users to describe tasks in natural language, which are executed end-to-end by AI agents without requiring any coding expertise. Explore Duvo.ai’s natural language automation capabilities
9. Is Duvo.ai only focused on retail or does it plan to expand?
While Duvo.ai has initially focused on retail, the long-term plan is to adapt its AI-native automation approach for other industries characterized by legacy systems and inefficiencies. Learn about Duvo.ai’s future plans
10. What is Tomas Čupr’s role within Duvo.ai?
Tomas Čupr, previously the founder of Rohlik, is the CEO and co-founder of Duvo.ai, driving the vision of AI-powered automation for retail operations. Discover Tomas Čupr’s leadership role
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
Violetta Bonenkamp's expertise in CAD sector, IP protection and blockchain
Violetta Bonenkamp is recognized as a multidisciplinary expert with significant achievements in the CAD sector, intellectual property (IP) protection, and blockchain technology.
CAD Sector:
- Violetta is the CEO and co-founder of CADChain, a deep tech startup focused on developing IP management software specifically for CAD (Computer-Aided Design) data. CADChain addresses the lack of industry standards for CAD data protection and sharing, using innovative technology to secure and manage design data.
- She has led the company since its inception in 2018, overseeing R&D, PR, and business development, and driving the creation of products for platforms such as Autodesk Inventor, Blender, and SolidWorks.
- Her leadership has been instrumental in scaling CADChain from a small team to a significant player in the deeptech space, with a diverse, international team.
IP Protection:
- Violetta has built deep expertise in intellectual property, combining academic training with practical startup experience. She has taken specialized courses in IP from institutions like WIPO and the EU IPO.
- She is known for sharing actionable strategies for startup IP protection, leveraging both legal and technological approaches, and has published guides and content on this topic for the entrepreneurial community.
- Her work at CADChain directly addresses the need for robust IP protection in the engineering and design industries, integrating cybersecurity and compliance measures to safeguard digital assets.
Blockchain:
- Violetta’s entry into the blockchain sector began with the founding of CADChain, which uses blockchain as a core technology for securing and managing CAD data.
- She holds several certifications in blockchain and has participated in major hackathons and policy forums, such as the OECD Global Blockchain Policy Forum.
- Her expertise extends to applying blockchain for IP management, ensuring data integrity, traceability, and secure sharing in the CAD industry.
Violetta is a true multiple specialist who has built expertise in Linguistics, Education, Business Management, Blockchain, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, Game Design, AI, SEO, Digital Marketing, cyber security and zero code automations. Her extensive educational journey includes a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Education, an Advanced Master in Linguistics from Belgium (2006-2007), an MBA from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden (2006-2008), and an Erasmus Mundus joint program European Master of Higher Education from universities in Norway, Finland, and Portugal (2009).
She is the founder of Fe/male Switch, a startup game that encourages women to enter STEM fields, and also leads CADChain, and multiple other projects like the Directory of 1,000 Startup Cities with a proprietary MeanCEO Index that ranks cities for female entrepreneurs. Violetta created the "gamepreneurship" methodology, which forms the scientific basis of her startup game. She also builds a lot of SEO tools for startups. Her achievements include being named one of the top 100 women in Europe by EU Startups in 2022 and being nominated for Impact Person of the year at the Dutch Blockchain Week. She is an author with Sifted and a speaker at different Universities. Recently she published a book on Startup Idea Validation the right way: from zero to first customers and beyond, launched a Directory of 1,500+ websites for startups to list themselves in order to gain traction and build backlinks and is building MELA AI to help local restaurants in Malta get more visibility online.
For the past several years Violetta has been living between the Netherlands and Malta, while also regularly traveling to different destinations around the globe, usually due to her entrepreneurial activities. This has led her to start writing about different locations and amenities from the POV of an entrepreneur. Here’s her recent article about the best hotels in Italy to work from.
About the Publication
Fe/male Switch is an innovative startup platform designed to empower women entrepreneurs through an immersive, game-like experience. Founded in 2020 during the pandemic "without any funding and without any code," this non-profit initiative has evolved into a comprehensive educational tool for aspiring female entrepreneurs.The platform was co-founded by Violetta Shishkina-Bonenkamp, who serves as CEO and one of the lead authors of the Startup News branch.
Mission and Purpose
Fe/male Switch Foundation was created to address the gender gap in the tech and entrepreneurship space. The platform aims to skill-up future female tech leaders and empower them to create resilient and innovative tech startups through what they call "gamepreneurship". By putting players in a virtual startup village where they must survive and thrive, the startup game allows women to test their entrepreneurial abilities without financial risk.
Key Features
The platform offers a unique blend of news, resources,learning, networking, and practical application within a supportive, female-focused environment:
- Skill Lab: Micro-modules covering essential startup skills
- Virtual Startup Building: Create or join startups and tackle real-world challenges
- AI Co-founder (PlayPal): Guides users through the startup process
- SANDBOX: A testing environment for idea validation before launch
- Wellness Integration: Virtual activities to balance work and self-care
- Marketplace: Buy or sell expert sessions and tutorials
Impact and Growth
Since its inception, Fe/male Switch has shown impressive growth:
- 5,000+ female entrepreneurs in the community
- 100+ startup tools built
- 5,000+ pieces of articles and news written
- 1,000 unique business ideas for women created
Partnerships
Fe/male Switch has formed strategic partnerships to enhance its offerings. In January 2022, it teamed up with global website builder Tilda to provide free access to website building tools and mentorship services for Fe/male Switch participants.
Recognition
Fe/male Switch has received media attention for its innovative approach to closing the gender gap in tech entrepreneurship. The platform has been featured in various publications highlighting its unique "play to learn and earn" model.
