Vienna-based business intelligence company sells its proprietary search and data technology, along with its AI intellectual property, to US-based AI platform Sprouts.ai — parts of the team will join the acquirer as founder David R. Prasser pivots to new AI advisory and investment venture
VIENNA, Austria — 25 September 2026 — US-based AI company Sprouts.ai has acquired the search and data technology and AI intellectual property of Vienna-based StartUs Insights, a leading international provider of technology and company intelligence. The purchase price was not disclosed. As part of the transaction, parts of the StartUs Insights team will join Sprouts.ai.
Founded in Vienna in 2016 by David R. Prasser, StartUs Insights began as a startup focused on connecting and discovering emerging companies. Over the following decade, it evolved into an international business and innovation intelligence data platform, serving more than 1,500 customers worldwide — including Roche, Siemens, Samsung, Shell, and Mitsubishi — and supporting approximately 2,000 innovation, scouting, and research projects.
StartUs Insights’ Proprietary Technology at the Core
Over time, StartUs Insights’ proprietary technology became increasingly central to its offering. The company developed systems capable of collecting, structuring, and searching large volumes of unstructured company and technology data, including AI-based information extraction and natural-language search. Its stated ambition: to build one of the world’s most comprehensive tools for identifying companies, technologies, and market trends.
In recent years, artificial intelligence became a key component of the company’s technology stack. StartUs Insights leveraged Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI-driven data processing to extract information from unstructured sources, making its growing datasets available for research and innovation intelligence.
Under Prasser’s leadership, StartUs Insights grew to more than 50 employees, with 20 people most recently working across technology and data. A significant share of the company’s insights on startups, emerging technologies, and industry trends was published weekly on its corporate blog, which most recently reached more than 200,000 readers per month.
Sprouts.ai to Strengthen Data Processing and Semantic Search Capabilities
Sprouts.ai plans to use the acquired technology and data to expand its AI-ready datasets and semantic search capabilities. The US company develops an AI-based go-to-market (GTM) platform for enterprise customers, combining data intelligence with autonomous agents across the sales funnel. Sprouts.ai integrates with platforms including Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics and works with AI environments such as Copilot and Claude. The company describes its offering as a unified GTM intelligence platform.
“The technology, data, and team from StartUs Insights are highly complementary to our mission of building AI-ready datasets and the world’s leading semantic search engine for enterprise GTM,” said Karan Chaudhry, Co-Founder and CEO of Sprouts.ai.
“The fact that the technology we built will now be further developed within an AI company is a very fitting conclusion to this chapter for me,” said Prasser. “At the same time, I am more interested than ever in what happens when increasingly powerful AI systems meet companies, business models, and entire industries — and how organizations can use this development strategically rather than simply trying to keep up with it.”
New Chapter: AI Advisory, Data Intelligence, and Startup Investments
Following the acquisition, Prasser will continue to focus on artificial intelligence, emerging technologies, and innovation. He is currently supporting companies and startups with AI product development as well as questions related to data, technology, and data-driven business models.
In parallel, he is consolidating his investment and advisory activities under his new company, Tilly & Elliot GmbH.
“In addition to hands-on support for startups and scaleups working on AI, physical AI, and data-driven business models, Tilly & Elliot will also support selected early-stage startups with its own capital,” said Prasser.
About StartUs Insights
Founded in Vienna, Austria, in 2016, StartUs Insights developed technology and intelligence solutions for identifying and analyzing 9 million startups, 25,000 emerging technologies, market developments, and innovation trends. The company worked with more than 1,500 clients internationally and grew to a team of more than 50 people. Learn more at www.startus-insights.com.
About Sprouts.ai
Sprouts.ai builds Revenue Agents that turn traditional revenue teams AI-native. The company has invested in a deep data intelligence moat to power autonomous agents across the full funnel, from ICP to Closed Won. Customers can run Sprouts.ai inside the platforms they already use, including Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Copilot, and Claude. Built for enterprises that demand secure, compliant, and trusted data, Sprouts.ai is disrupting a $250B category by replacing fragmented legacy tooling and dirty data with a unified GTM intelligence layer. Founded in 2023 by Karan Chaudhry, Kapil Chaudhry, and Avinash Nagla, the company is headquartered in Palo Alto and trusted by leading global brands. Learn more at www.sprouts.ai.
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