(Sydney) – Heatseeker AI, an Australian artificial intelligence startup, has raised 1.5 million US dollars (approximately 1.17 million pounds or 2.3 million Australian dollars) in pre-seed funding, drawing strong interest from investors in the United States. The company says the backing comes at a critical moment for the rapidly evolving global market research sector, which is increasingly seeking real time insights driven by behavioural data rather than traditional surveys.
The oversubscribed funding round was led by San Francisco venture firm Capital F, with further investment from Eupehmia, Even Capital and East End Ventures. The investors were drawn to the startup’s innovative behavioural research platform, which allows enterprise clients to monitor and analyse customer decision making in real time.
Heatseeker AI’s growing client list already includes more than a dozen enterprise organisations across the United States, Europe and Australia. Among them are well known Australian brands such as health insurer Medibank and payments provider Tyro, alongside global consulting giants including KPMG and Bain, as listed on the company’s official site.
Margaret Coblentz, co founder and general partner at Capital F, described the startup’s technology as “immediately compelling” and said she had confidence in the team’s ability to scale quickly and effectively. “They bring the right combination of experience and execution speed to redefine how companies make major commercial decisions,” she said.
Chief executive Kate O’Keeffe, who previously founded Cisco’s Hyperinnovation Labs and worked with BCG Ventures, said Heatseeker AI’s approach is a sharp departure from the outdated methods still used by many firms. “We are ending the era where companies make multi million dollar decisions based on what focus group participants say they want,” O’Keeffe said. “Our platform shows what customers actually do, in real time and at scale.”
O’Keeffe is joined by chief operating officer Fiona Triaca and chief product officer Rutger Coolen, forming a founding team with experience across innovation, research and commercial product development.
In addition to its growing domestic presence, Heatseeker AI is following in the footsteps of other successful Australian tech exports like Atlassian and Canva by adopting a dual continent operating model. The company will keep its product development base in Australia while managing its market expansion from the United States.
