AI-based online shopping problems startup raises $2.3 million pre-Seed

A Sydney AI-powered ecommerce startup focused on customer satisfaction during delivery – known in the trade as WISMO (Where is my order?) – has raised $2.3 million in pre-Seed funding.

The round for Keeyu was led by Rampersand, with support from Archangel, Startmate, Empress Capital, Exhort Ventures, Sydney Angels, Southern Angels, and others including Marketplacer’s Jason Wyatt, Alexey Mitko from Eucalyptus, Paul Greenberg and Luigi Iacullo.

The round is more than double the $1 million the startup was seeking last year when it was part of the Startmate program and was completed in July but only announced this week with the roll-out of Keeyu’s AI agent from beta testing to tackle automated issue resolution. Keeyu was also a recent finalist in the SXSW Sydney Pitch competition.

Founded in 2023 by Jevon Le Roux, Tahir Rauf and Tracy Godtschalk, who worked in retail at the likes of Sportscraft, SurfStitch and Mastercard, the product launched in July 2024.

It connects every e-commerce system into one platform, monitoring orders in real time to detect problems such as failed payments, delays, or stockouts, then automatically fixes them.

It’s now used by 15 retailers across 25 brands, including Decjuba, Rebel Sport NZ, Camilla, EHP Labs, Clutch Glue, and Budgy Smuggler.

The report up to 90% fewer tickets, a 50% reduction in manual workload across customer experience and operations teams, and a 9% lift in customer retention.

Le Roux, the CEO, said Industry studies show that nearly half of customers don’t return after a poor delivery experience.

“We built Keeyu to change that, so shoppers get what they want, on time, as promised,” he said.

His cofounder and Keeyu’s chief product officer Tracy Godtschalk said they want to make proactive operations the new standard in retail.

“Teams shouldn’t be chasing tickets. They should have the silence that comes when everything works,” she said.

Rampersand partner Taryn Pieterse said e-commerce operations are broken and the firefighting can feel never-ending.

“Jevon Le Roux, Tracy Godtschalk and Tahir Rauf have lived this problem and are building the solution they wished existed when they were in the trenches, late at night, scrambling to fulfil customers’ orders,” she said.

“This team has the domain expertise to solve this problem, and their executional excellence means they are already saving customers huge amounts of time, building loyalty and increasing profits.”