Two founders who sold their first startup to Cisco for $500 million have raised $34 million in seed funding for their next act.
Last year, CEO Nitzan Shapira and CTO Ran Ribenzaft launched their new startup Harmony, which uses AI to field workplace requests. Rather than simply answering employees' questions, Harmony operates inside Slack and Microsoft Teams to handle tasks like onboarding, software access, and resetting passwords.
They aim to help workers avoid digging through internal systems or waiting to talk to tech support or human resources, the company said.
Harmony works with more than 100 applications and can use an employee's role and permissions to tailor responses. Companies can also require human approval before AI takes action.
Customers include workflow automation company n8n, investing app eToro, security startup Cyera, and fashion retailer Kith.
Lightspeed led Harmony's $34 million round. The venture capital firm also backed Shapira and Ribenzaft's first startup, cloud software monitoring company Epsagon, which Cisco acquired in 2021. Shapira said this time, he wants to build a much bigger company rather than pursue another early acquisition.
Hitachi Ventures, Fin Capital, Mercer Ventures, and Operator Partners also participated in Harmony's seed round.
This funding round is larger than most seed rounds. Shapira told Business Insider that it isn't uncommon for second-time founders, and it gives Harmony enough funding to scale quickly without needing to return to investors so soon.
The startup will use the funds to grow its engineering, product, and sales teams. Harmony has 60 employees, with roughly two-thirds in Israel and the rest in New York.
Here's a look at the pitch deck that Harmony used to raise its $34 million seed. The deck has been redacted so that it can be shared publicly.
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Geoff Weiss is a senior reporter on Business Insider’s tech team, where he writes about AI startups and Y Combinator, the intersection of AI and the media industry, and workplace dynamics within top AI labs and chip companies.Previously, Geoff was on the media desk, covering YouTube and Netflix, and themes like the intersection of Hollywood and the creator economy. His work on Netflix’s video podcasting ambitions and Mr Beast’s lessons for Hollywood won second and first prize, respectively, at the 2025 LA Press Club Awards.Prior to joining Business Insider, Geoff was the senior editor of Tubefilter and a staff writer at Entrepreneur. He graduated from New York University with a degree in English Literature.He can be reached at [email protected], on Signal @geoffweiss.25, and on LinkedIn. Have a tip? Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.Selected stories:Nvidia crushed its quarter — and CEO Jensen Huang said in a leaked all-hands that 'the market did not appreciate it'Nvidia will foot the bill for Trump's new visa fees. Here's what CEO Jensen Huang told staff.Massive AI salaries and RTO are fueling a real estate boom in San Francisco: 'It's going to rain money'The AI talent wars are ricocheting across startups. Here's how they're competing with Big Tech.
