UK-based B2B software startup Souk has raised $1.6 million in pre-seed funding to develop its AI-powered partner management platform. The round was led by Sure Valley Ventures (SVV), with participation from Antler, Fuel Ventures and strategic angel investors from across the B2B software industry.

Founded in July 2025, Souk is developing an AI Partner Manager designed to help companies manage and reactivate partner relationships. The company is targeting businesses that rely on partnerships as a route to market but continue to manage these relationships through spreadsheets, email and other manual processes.

Souk says companies often focus resources on recruiting new partners while many existing relationships become inactive. Citing industry research, the company says a large share of partner-generated revenue typically comes from a relatively small proportion of active partners, creating an opportunity to generate more value from existing networks.

At the centre of Souk's platform is Coco, an autonomous AI agent that manages tasks across the partnership lifecycle, including sourcing partners, maintaining engagement, monitoring performance and managing payouts. The aim is to reduce the workload involved in running partner programmes while helping companies keep a larger proportion of their networks active.

Souk says early deployments of Coco have identified partnerships with a potential seven-figure sales pipeline and led to contracts with several unicorn companies. The company also reports that the platform has reduced the manual work involved in partner acquisition.

Partnerships are how most business gets done, yet the software supporting them has barely evolved. Companies spend enormous energy signing partners only to watch 80% of them go silent. With Souk, we are building Coco to handle the heavy lifting, keeping partners active and turning dormant networks into predictable revenue engines,

said Leo Crowe, CEO and co-founder of Souk.

The new funding will be used entirely for product development, with Souk focusing on building out Coco's core architecture and further developing its AI-based approach to partnership management.

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