Mercury.ai with new co-managing director and growth plans

Bielefeld, 16.11.2022 | The Bielefeld-based startup Mercury.ai, which helps companies such as Nestlé, Volkswagen Financial Services and Tamaris provide real-time customer support with its chatbot solutions, has a new co-managing director. Johannes Tappmeier is no stranger to this key position at the software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider. As part of the management team at digital agency comspace, Tappmeier was already involved in the sales of the Conversational AI platform. The two companies have been working together in partnership for more than three years, and now comspace has secured shares in Mercury. Tappmeier will remain on the management board of comspace, but will continue to develop and expand sales as well as Mercury.ai's partner business together with co-managing director Stefan Trockel, who is part of the original founding team.

"Bringing the perfect customer experience to messaging chats in the interplay between humans and AI - that's our goal," said Stefan Trockel, founder and co-managing director of Mercury.ai. "We bring strong expertise in product development, artificial intelligence, and chatbots. To inspire more customers and continue to grow sustainably, a strong partner network is key. With Johannes Tappmeier as our new co-managing director, we are gaining strong sales expertise to expand our business further. He has successfully brought technology and customers together at comspace for 20 years. This will benefit the entire partner network and now us as well," Trockel continued.

"Mercury.ai has very strong expertise in Conversational AI. What Stefan Trockel and his team have built up over the last six years is very impressive and technically far advanced," said Johannes Tappmeier, who has been responsible for account management and sales at comspace for many years. "I am very pleased that Stefan and I will now be tackling cooperation with strategic partners and sales together," says Tappmeier.

The work of the future relies on mutual understanding and networks

"From the very beginning, it was our common understanding that we wanted to continue to develop Mercury.ai independently and strategically strengthen it for the next steps. Because of the currently observed consolidation in the market of the conversational platform, there are enormous opportunities for providers with strong technological differentiation. Both comspace and Johannes have long supported Mercury, which is why we are not only convinced in terms of content, but also see a genuine partnership at eye level. For us, this also includes shared convictions about the work of the future and the importance and responsibility of technology."

Tappmeier adds, "For me and us, it simply made sense from the very beginning to use and further expand our synergies. I'm very happy to now be able to pass on the expertise I gained at comspace to a young company, but also to be able to learn from it," Tappmeier continues.  

Mercury.ai and comspace are certain that this decision marks an important milestone in further expanding the business: "The next customers and partners are already waiting in the wings, and we're looking forward to everything that's coming!" says Trockel. 

Digital ecosystem in East Westphalia

And the city of Bielefeld can also benefit from a strong pioneer in Conversational AI to further strengthen its own business and technology location. The origin of Mercury.ai lies in the research group of Prof. Philipp Cimiano at the Cluster of Excellence CITEC at Bielefeld University. Today, the startup is an associated partner of the AI Marketplace, a project of the top cluster "it's OWL." Both companies - comspace and Mercury.ai - are strongly networked in the digital ecosystem of East Westphalia, which also includes the startup incubator Founders Foundation. Especially the exchange in the Pioneers Club was groundbreaking for the cooperation: from the professional exchange and project business to the new partnership in the management.

About Mercury.ai:

Mercury.ai's Conversational AI platform offers high-performance AI chatbots and messaging solutions for customer dialog. Companies like Nestlé, Volkswagen Financial Services, Tamaris, Böllhoff, and others use the platform for chat-based services via messenger services like Whatsapp or their company websites and online stores. 

The intelligent dialog automation enables diverse business cases along the customer journey - from messenger marketing to information services, automated guided selling to self-service, and customer loyalty solutions. 

About comspace:

comspace develops complex web solutions for medium-sized and large companies. The tech agency has delivered the highest quality in code and project management since 2002. Consulting, development, services: With around 100 colleagues, the entire bandwidth is covered. The team focuses on strong solutions for content management and digital asset management and builds individual interfaces to third-party systems. 

Well-known customers such as Coppenrath & Wiese, the Hans Böckler Foundation, KWS Saat, Meyer Werft, Ottobock and Weidmüller rely on this expertise, the many years of experience of the colleagues in their technologies and the passion of the team for successful projects and sustainable customer relationships.