Tekst raises USD $11.5 million to automate workflows

Tekst has raised USD $11.5 million in Series A funding in a round led by US venture firm Elephant.

The Ghent-based company was founded in 2022 by Wouter Janssen and Tiebe Parmentier. Existing investor Entourage also increased its backing through Pieterjan Bouten, a former Showpad executive.

Tekst sells software that maps how work moves through businesses by analysing digital records such as emails, documents and actions taken in existing systems. It uses that information to reconstruct end-to-end workflows in areas including quotes, orders, claims and customer service.

Tekst argues that many companies struggle to scale their use of artificial intelligence because key business processes are not formally documented. Instead, those processes are often spread across inboxes, PDFs and employee knowledge, leaving automation tools without the context needed to handle complex office tasks.

Janssen described the problem the company is trying to solve. "The processes that actually run a business aren't written down anywhere. They live in emails, in PDFs, in people's heads. Our process intelligence technology surfaces all of it. Without that, an AI agent is just an expensive assistant or a glorified chatbot. The companies that crack this open get to use AI on a completely different level - and finally see real returns on what they've put in," said Wouter Janssen, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Tekst.

How it works

Rather than relying on consultants to interview staff and map workflows manually, Tekst says it rebuilds processes automatically from the digital trail left inside a business. The system identifies links between incoming messages, supporting documents and the actions that follow, creating what the company describes as a live model of how information moves through an organisation.

Parmentier explained the approach in more detail. "Instead of sending in an army of consultants to run interviews and write reports, we go straight to the source - the system itself - and watch how work actually flows. Which emails trigger which actions? Which document drives which decision? Where do the exceptions hide? From there we build a live process model - a blueprint of how information really moves through the company. Only then do we bring in AI agents that genuinely understand the process: who decides what, when a human needs to step in, which exceptions are allowed. Nobody else in the market starts from that foundation," said Parmentier.

Tekst said it reached 90 per cent automation on a complex back-office process within three weeks at medical technology group Becton Dickinson. It did not disclose the financial terms of the deployment.

Customer focus

The new funding will support work in areas including quote-to-cash and procure-to-pay, where businesses still rely heavily on manual processes despite their importance to day-to-day operations. Tekst said many customers still handle long email threads, PDF attachments and contract clauses by hand.

According to the company, its platform connects with software already used by customers, including SAP, Salesforce and Microsoft products. Tekst listed Daikin Europe, Colruyt Group, Securex and Becton Dickinson among its customers.

Janssen said quote-to-cash is an early target because of the amount of manual work still involved. "Nobody joins logistics or finance or customer ops to copy-paste data all day. We get rid of that work so people can focus on what actually matters - exceptions, customer experience, better decisions. Quote-to-cash is the perfect place to start: it's complex, it's mission-critical, and it's still way too manual," he said.

Expansion plans

Tekst has 35 employees and plans to double headcount by the end of the year, focusing recruitment on engineering and commercial roles. The funding will also support product development and international expansion.

Entourage investor Bouten said the speed of delivery was a factor in his support for the business. "The AI market is moving at breakneck speed, but Tekst has unique technology that maps and automates the most complex business processes in record time. What consulting firms typically deliver in months - with large teams and hefty costs - Tekst delivers in just a few weeks," he said.

Elephant said it sees process intelligence as a missing layer for companies looking to embed AI agents in operational workflows. "Many mid-market and enterprise companies want to deploy AI agents - but they're missing the process intelligence layer needed to do it reliably. Tekst understands that gap and has developed an AI-powered product to help close it. Their technology shows how processes actually flow within an organization, and we believe that's the foundation AI agents need to operate properly in the back office," said Matt Tanenblatt, Partner at Elephant.