Riplo, a startup developing an AI-native operating system for consulting workflows, has raised €2.6 million (£2.3 million) in a pre-seed funding round led by Cherry Ventures.
The round includes participation from Blue Lion Capital, the founders of QuantumBlack, and angel investors from firms such as McKinsey, BCG, OpenAI, Apple, Goldman Sachs, and Hg Capital. The funding coincides with the company’s emergence from stealth and will support the development of its agentic platform designed to integrate artificial intelligence directly into consulting processes.
What The Company Does
Riplo is building an operating system that enables collaboration between human consultants and AI agents across core consulting workflows. Rather than treating AI as an external assistant, the platform embeds AI agents directly into the working environment, allowing them to contribute to tasks such as structuring analysis, drafting materials, and refining outputs in real time.
The system is designed to address limitations in traditional consulting tools, which are largely built for manual processes such as slide creation and spreadsheet modelling. These tools often operate in fragmented environments and are not optimised for AI interaction, creating inefficiencies in workflows that rely heavily on speed and iteration.
By integrating AI at the system level, Riplo aims to streamline the transition from analysis to decision-making, enabling consulting teams to produce outputs more efficiently while maintaining consistency and quality.
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Market Context / Industry Background
The consulting industry, valued at approximately $1 trillion, has seen relatively limited technological transformation compared to other sectors. While firms have increasingly adopted data analytics and automation tools, many core workflows still rely on legacy software environments.
At the same time, advances in generative AI and agent-based systems are creating new opportunities to redesign how knowledge work is structured and executed. Startups in this space are focusing on embedding AI into professional services workflows, moving beyond standalone tools toward integrated systems that can support complex, multi-step processes.
Riplo’s approach reflects a broader shift toward AI-native infrastructure, where systems are designed from the outset to accommodate collaboration between humans and autonomous agents. This model enables more dynamic task delegation, continuous learning from workflows, and improved consistency in output quality across projects.
In addition, the integration of AI at the operating system level allows firms to streamline project management, reduce manual overhead, and enhance knowledge retention within organizations. As competition intensifies, consulting firms are increasingly exploring such technologies to improve margins, scale expertise, and deliver faster, data-driven insights to clients. Over time, this transition may redefine traditional consulting models, shifting value from human-intensive processes toward hybrid systems that combine domain expertise with intelligent automation.
Founder / Investor Commentary
Tobias Haefele, co-founder and CEO of Riplo, framed the company’s vision in contrast to existing tools, noting that “the consulting industry is currently running on the digital equivalent of a typewriter.” He added that achieving the speed enabled by agent-based systems is not possible within legacy environments, emphasising that the company is “building the interface where the next generation of strategic analyses actually happens.”
The founding team brings prior experience from QuantumBlack, McKinsey’s AI division, and Hg Capital, combining expertise in AI product development and software engineering at scale.
Growth Plans / Use Of Funds
The newly raised capital will be used to expand Riplo’s engineering team, strengthen collaborations with design partners, and further develop its product architecture.
The company plans to continue refining its platform to support a wider range of consulting use cases, with a focus on improving the interaction between human users and AI agents within complex workflows.
About Riplo
Riplo is an AI-native operating system designed for consulting workflows. Founded in 2025. Headquartered in London. The company enables collaboration between consultants and AI agents, aiming to improve efficiency and decision-making through integrated, agent-driven software.
