SaaS pioneer joins Cologne-based AI company following $20 million seed funding round
Cologne, January 20, 2026. Cologne-based AI company octonomy has appointed Frank Piotraschke as Chief Revenue Officer. Piotraschke spent the last five years as CRO at SoSafe, where he built up the go-to-market organization to over 300 employees. At octonomy, he will be responsible for international expansion following the recently completed seed financing of $20 million.
Expertise in scaling tech companies
Over the past 20 years, Frank Piotraschke has repeatedly demonstrated how European tech companies can be successfully scaled. In addition to SoSafe, he built the go-to-market organizations for Staffbase and Optimizely, working with investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Insight Partners, and Highland Capital. In 2025, he was honored with the GTM10 Award.
“Most AI providers promise a lot but deliver little. octonomy has developed something that works. The technology delivers measurable results, customers use it productively, and the first year was exceptional. That’s the constellation I want to be part of.”
Automation of complex knowledge work
octonomy develops AI-powered automation for technical support and service with seamless integration into existing enterprise systems. The technology achieves a validated response quality of over 95 percent on complex technical documentation. Conventional AI solutions fail at this level of complexity and typically achieve 60 to 70 percent accuracy.
Implementation takes less than 20 days. Companies in industry, mechanical engineering, and technical services are already using the solution productively to relieve highly qualified specialists of document-intensive preparatory work.
International expansion after successful financing
Frank Piotraschke will further develop octonomy’s go-to-market strategy and prepare the organization for international scaling. The focus is on opening up new markets and expanding partnerships in the DACH region and the US.
The seed financing of US$20 million was provided by international investors and banks and is one of the largest seed rounds in Germany in 2025.
“Frank has proven time and again that he can successfully – and, above all, quickly – scale companies from the start-up phase. That’s exactly the skill we need right now. We have a working product and are meeting clear market demand.”
Frank Piotraschke’s arrival comes at a time when the market has matured. By 2025, companies have experimented, launched pilot projects, and learned that generic AI tools fail when faced with complex requirements. The demand for solutions that actually work has never been greater than it is today.
About octonomy:
octonomy is a Cologne-based AI company that specializes in developing AI for the aggregation of complex knowledge in support. octonomy’s digital specialists – known as “Octo-Workers” – take on multi-stage projects that previously had to be handled by highly qualified employees. The AI co-workers understand technical documentation, process live data from company systems, and deliver complete results. This enables octonomy to achieve a validated response quality of over 95 percent.
Founded in the summer of 2024 by Sushel Bijganath and Oliver Trabert, the company now has over 100 employees and is supported by international investors such as Capnamic, Macquarie Capital Venture Capital, NRW.BANK, and Tech Visions Fund.
Image Source: Anna Bröhl
