The market for AI-powered sales reps has exploded, especially in Silicon Valley. Billboards near San Francisco scream slogans like “Stop Hiring Humans” and “Hire Piper, the AI SDR.” But beneath the flashy marketing, many venture capitalists are starting to question whether this new wave of AI sales startups can truly deliver on their lofty promises. Enter Actively AI, a New York-based startup that says the current crop of AI sales tools is getting it all wrong. Co-founder Anshul Gupta believes the industry has been too focused on volume. By bombarding prospects with messages — rather than truly understanding how to sell.
“Classic AI sales reps have failed,” Gupta admitted, pointing out that high-volume outreach doesn’t reflect how top human sellers actually close deals. Instead of spamming inboxes, Actively wants to build something smarter — and more selective.
Founded in 2022, Actively AI is taking a different route. The company is developing custom AI reasoning models that mimic the strategic thinking of the best human salespeople. These models sift through a company’s internal data, zeroing in on the prospects most likely to convert. Rather than blindly contacting everyone in the funnel.
This shift in approach taps into a fast-growing area in the AI world: reasoning models. These systems go beyond simple outputs by checking their logic, making inferences, and justifying their decisions. Similar to how a great salesperson would carefully tailor their pitch.
So far, the model seems to be working. Actively claims it has helped clients like Ramp, the fintech unicorn, generate tens of millions of dollars in additional revenue. That kind of performance has now caught the attention of investors.
The startup just raised $17.5 million in Series A funding, led by Bain Capital Ventures. That follows an earlier $5 million seed round led by First Round Capital, bringing Actively’s total funding to $22.5 million.
According to CEO Mihir Garimella, Actively is building what it calls “GTM Superintelligence”. decision-making engine that goes beyond automation to actively drive business growth. “It doesn’t just assist sales teams — it helps make the best possible decisions to win more deals,” Garimella said.
To power its platform, Actively combines its own proprietary AI models with leading reasoning tech from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. Both founders studied AI at Stanford. With Garimella specializing in active learning, a field focused on helping models learn more efficiently with less data. That research directly inspired the company’s name and philosophy.
The reasoning model trend is picking up momentum. While companies like OpenAI and DeepSeek have led the charge with advanced reasoning models for general use. Startups are starting to adopt similar technology to solve niche problems. Just last week, Taxo, a healthcare automation startup, raised $5 million after reaching $1 million in ARR by using a reasoning engine to automate medical paperwork.
Actively hasn’t disclosed its exact revenue figures but noted that its ARR has grown 10x in just nine months — a sign of traction that likely helped close its latest funding round quickly.
Still, the AI sales space is extremely crowded, and success is far from guaranteed. While “reasoning” adds a promising layer of intelligence to traditional AI models, the real test will be whether this tech can consistently outperform today’s sales assistants and SDR bots in the field.
For now, at least, investors are betting that Actively AI’s reasoning-driven strategy offers a smarter — and more effective — path forward.
