Sales tech startup FrontlineIQ has raised $3.3 million in seed funding to make performance coaching more engaging — and less awkward — for in-person sales teams.
The round, structured as SAFEs, was backed by AQC Capital and several angel investors with deep retail and sales experience.
Founded by Ben Rodier, a serial entrepreneur behind Adsplash (acquired by Yellow Pages Group) and Salesfloor, FrontlineIQ is building an AI-powered platform that “gamifies” sales performance. Its AI assistant, named Theo, analyzes real-world sales interactions and provides tailored feedback — helping employees improve without the pressure of direct confrontation from managers.
“Tech can solve not having a good manager,” said Rodier, CEO and founder of FrontlineIQ. “Theo takes the ickiness out of working in sales and replaces awkward feedback sessions with continuous, data-driven coaching.”
Turning retail sales into a measurable, rewarding game
FrontlineIQ’s platform helps retail and showroom sales teams — from furniture stores to auto dealers — track their performance using AI-driven analysis. With consent, the app records customer interactions and evaluates how well salespeople follow brand guidelines, upsell, or close deals. The system then turns insights into personalized feedback and gamified progress tracking.
“It’s not about replacing human coaching,” Rodier said. “It’s about giving managers and employees a shared understanding of performance so that conversations become more meaningful and productive.”
The platform is already in use by Ashley Furniture, Sleep Country, Dormez-Vous, Dufresne Furniture & Appliances, and auto showrooms for brands like Porsche and Hyundai. FrontlineIQ operates on a SaaS subscription model, and Rodier said the company is on track to surpass seven figures in revenue by 2026.
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Empowering frontline teams with AI
As AI adoption accelerates across retail, Rodier believes in-person sales teams have been left behind in the digital transformation. A KPMG study found that 81% of Canadian retail executives plan to adopt a “gen-AI operating model” within the next year. FrontlineIQ’s platform offers a way to enhance — not replace — human roles by using AI to motivate, educate, and retain frontline talent.
“FrontlineIQ is solving one of the toughest challenges in sales — how to consistently coach and motivate large, distributed teams,” said Kalthoum Bouacida, Partner at AQC Capital. “We’re backing a proven team using AI not to replace people, but to elevate their performance at scale.”
Scaling across North America
With the new capital, FrontlineIQ plans to expand its engineering, sales, marketing, and customer success teams, and accelerate product development to onboard more retail and automotive partners across North America.
“The next generation of sales enablement tools should feel like a game, not a spreadsheet,” Rodier added. “Our goal is to make learning, improvement, and recognition part of everyday work — powered by AI.”
About FrontlineIQ
FrontlineIQ, founded in Montréal, Canada, is an AI-powered sales coaching platform that helps retail and showroom teams improve performance through real-time insights and gamified feedback. Its AI assistant, Theo, analyzes sales interactions to deliver personalized coaching and boost engagement — transforming traditional performance reviews into motivating, data-driven experiences.
