London-based agentic AI startup, Conduct, has emerged from stealth with a $12 million seed funding round, positioning itself to lead what it describes as “the largest transformation in enterprise IT” by modernising legacy ERP systems using cutting-edge agentic AI technology.
The round was led by Creandum, one of Europe’s leading early-stage VC firms, with participation from Lucid Capital, Booom, and angel investors from Palantir, Google DeepMind, Workday, and a senior leader from SAP.
Palantir Veterans Target Enterprise IT Pain Points
Founded in 2024 by former Palantir leaders Jan Philipp Haas (CEO), Philipp Hoefer (Chief Product Officer), and Henry Thompson (CTO), Conduct’s mission stems from firsthand experience with the growing burden that legacy ERP systems place on large organisations.
The company has developed a breakthrough platform that allows organisations to converse directly with their ERP systems, providing IT leaders and business stakeholders with unprecedented visibility into complex codebases spanning millions of lines of code.
Jan Philipp Haas, Co-founder and CEO of Conduct, outlined the fundamental problem the company aims to solve:
“We believe that IT should be the core growth engine of every enterprise but today CEOs repeatedly tell us that IT is becoming a blocker to business outcomes: 3-4 per cent of enterprise revenue is spent on system maintenance. Counterintuitively, this is not driven by new code generation, but by having to manually decipher how complex systems spanning millions of lines of code actually work. Conduct’s AI agents drastically reduce the resource burden of software maintenance, allowing IT teams to focus on system innovation that drives revenue and productivity gains.”
Addressing Critical SAP Migration Deadlines
Conduct’s emergence comes at a critical juncture for enterprise IT departments. With SAP’s 2027 deadline for S/4HANA migration, CIOs face high-stakes decisions about the future of their systems. Traditional approaches often involve spending tens of millions on multi-year consulting projects that frequently fail or cause costly downtime.
Philipp Hoefer, Chief Product Officer of Conduct, explained the economics driving the need for their solution:
“For $1 spent on SAP customisation, $2 on average has to be spent on ongoing maintenance costs, so we built Conduct to drastically reduce the burden of managing your custom code, helping you keep your competitive edge while making your systems leaner and easier to maintain.”
Early Validation with Global Enterprises
The company has already demonstrated significant results through early pilots with global enterprises, including Daimler Truck and Rittal. These implementations have shown the platform can slash operational costs by up to 90% and dramatically speed up issue resolution times.
Conduct’s agentic AI distinguishes itself by learning the unique context of each customer’s ERP system over time, refining insights with every interaction whilst safeguarding highly sensitive business data. This contextual understanding allows the platform to reveal how even the most complex codebases operate and the business logic they contain – a level of clarity that has traditionally been out of reach for most large enterprises.
Strategic Positioning in Competitive Market
Operating in a crowded market of AI-driven ERP optimisers that includes Wayflyer, LeanIX, and Celonis, Conduct sets itself apart through its deep enterprise roots and focus on privacy-first, context-aware AI solutions. The company’s approach transforms opaque legacy ERP estates into intuitive, actionable insights.
Peter Specht, General Partner at Creandum, highlighted the strategic importance of Conduct’s platform:
“Conduct’s AI platform does exactly that. Starting with the SAP S/4HANA migration, the single most critical transformation in enterprise IT, Conduct is uniquely positioned to redefine how global leaders manage their most complex systems.”
Ambitious Vision for Enterprise Transformation
Conduct’s broader vision extends beyond simple system modernisation to removing the structural barriers in enterprise IT that have long constrained innovation and revenue growth. The company aims to achieve what it describes as “GDP-scale impact” by unlocking billions in economic value through faster innovation, higher efficiency, and increased operational speed.
The platform’s breakthrough capability allows enterprises to engage directly with their ERP environments, peeling back layers of hidden business logic and operational code that have historically functioned as black boxes for IT teams.
Rapid Growth and Expansion Plans
After quietly developing for 18 months, Conduct now employs 16 people and is hiring aggressively. The company’s approach addresses a fundamental shift needed in how enterprises view their core systems – transforming them from cost centres into strategic growth engines powered by AI.
The timing appears strategic, as IT maintenance costs continue to balloon and migration deadlines loom. Legacy ERP platforms underpinning most Fortune 500 companies often span millions of lines of complex customisation, creating immense operational headaches and costly burdens for IT teams trapped in maintenance mode.
With enterprises spending 3-4% of revenue on system maintenance while struggling with the complexity of legacy systems, Conduct’s AI-driven approach offers a pathway to restore agility, accelerate innovation, and power digital transformation at unprecedented scale.
The company’s emergence from stealth signals its readiness to tackle what it views as one of the most significant challenges facing modern enterprises: transforming legacy IT infrastructure from a business constraint into a competitive advantage.
