Berlin, 30. June 2020 – Project A has made an investment of USD 2.5 million (approx. EUR 2.2 million) in the start-up Pactum from Estonia. Due to Corona restrictions, the parties involved on both sides have never met in person before.

"As a start-up investor, we are of course used to communicating via digital channels such as video chats. However, for investment decisions of this magnitude, it is unusual even in our industry not to meet in person at least once – and there is a good reason for this," says Uwe Horstmann, partner and managing director of Project A.

"The personalities of the founders are one of the most important criteria for our investment decision. Outstanding ideas and business plans are only half the story: the team of founders must be a good fit, too," continues Uwe Horstmann. "In view of the circumstances, Pactum was able to convince us remotely."

Appropriately enough, Pactum is developing an AI-based negotiation system that will dispense with human involvement during commercial business negotiations.
"We believe that in the near future, an organization's strategic work will be done by humans while most of the operations and execution will be left to machines," says Martin Rand, founder of Pactum.

"We are convinced that AI-based systems will shape the future of business negotiations. Pactum is well on its way to being a driving force towards this future. We are very pleased to be able to support this great project", says Uwe Horstmann.

About Project A
Project A is one of the leading venture capital companies in Europe with offices in Berlin, Munich and Stockholm. In addition to $500 million in assets under management, Project A provides its portfolio companies with a wide range of operational support services. This includes more than 100 employees, all of them experts in software development, business intelligence, sales, marketing, recruiting, etc.

Project A was founded in 2012 and since then has supported more than 60 start-ups in 12 countries. The portfolio includes companies such as Catawiki, WorldRemit, Homeday, Spryker, sennder, KRY, Trade Republic and Voi. More information: www.project-a.com.

About Pactum
Pactum is an AI-based system that helps global companies to automatically offer personalized, commercial negotiations on a massive scale. The system adds value and saves time for both the Pactum client and their negotiation partner by aligning their values to determine win-win agreements via an easy-to-use chat interface that implements best-practice negotiation strategies. The company is based in Mountain View with engineering and operations in Estonia. Pactum is backed by founders of Skype and TransferWise and built by luminaries from Skype, Starship Technologies and the Government of Estonia’s e-Residency program.