Audos Raises $11.5M to Help Everyday Founders Launch Million-Dollar AI Businesses
Audos just picked up $11.5 million in fresh funding to push more everyday people into the driver's seat of AI entrepreneurship. The round, which includes both pre-seed and seed stages, was led by True Ventures and supported by Offline Ventures, Bungalow Capital, and notable backers like Bjarke Ingels, Leila Zegna, Niklas Zennstrom, and Mario Schlosser.
Founded in 2024 by Henrik Werdelin and Nicholas Thorne, the duo behind Prehype, which helped launch BarkBox and Ro, Audos is aiming to help solo entrepreneurs launch scalable businesses by turning personal expertise into AI-powered tools and services. Most of the new funding is earmarked for these budding founders.
“In the past year, we've helped entrepreneurs launch hundreds of AI applications like wine tasting from Michelin-starred sommeliers, meal-planning, dating, Bible study, and customized post-partum fitness,” said Nicholas Thorne, Co-founder of Audos, highlighting the significance of the announcement.
The company’s system combines human coaching, AI tooling, and a funding model that shares in revenue instead of asking for equity or personal risk. That means someone with deep knowledge in, say, personal finance or language tutoring can build an AI agent that runs 24/7—handling customer conversations, suggesting content, and adjusting strategies in real-time.
Audos’ playbook revolves around four key pillars: helping people build with a proven AI business model, validating the idea with real customers fast, automating operations through multi-channel AI agents, and funding entrepreneurs in a way that aligns their growth with Audos’ own.
Werdelin says the goal is to lower the bar for entrepreneurship. While a majority of Americans say they’d like to run their own business, most are blocked by lack of time, tech skills, or upfront capital. Audos wants to change that by making it as simple as plugging your expertise into its platform.
Backing that vision, Tony Conrad of True Ventures said Henrik and Nicholas are carving out a new path between traditional venture capital and small business financing—one where creators and builders with different skills can finally thrive.
Just last month, OpenAI’s GPT-4o update made waves for its smoother voice and multimodal features, a trend that further fuels Audos’ belief that AI agents are only getting more capable. Audos is betting that pairing those tools with human ambition can create an entirely new class of entrepreneurs.
