Leo Huan, former president of Youzan, the first Chinese SaaS company to go public, has raised US$15 million for his new startup, Dealism. The round was led by GL Ventures, with participation from HSG, Linear Capital, and other angel investors. Huan, whose experience includes sales operations exceeding 100 billion yuan (roughly USD$14.3m), seeks to revolutionize business communication through artificial intelligence.
The startup specializes in automating conversational sales through WhatsApp and Instagram. Its product is what it calls the world’s first “vibe selling” agent, an AI model designed to interpret intent, emotion, and context in messages. The goal is to automate entire stages of negotiation, not just isolated responses.
“Technology has accelerated processes, but it hasn’t made sales more persuasive,” said Huan, CEO and founder. “Dealism is an evolution of traditional chatbots, incorporating tone analysis and emotional triggers to sustain commercially relevant conversations. The system is trained with internal documents and chat histories to reflect the unique style of each business.”
Expanding market
Mexico is a priority market in Dealism’s global expansion, ranking second on its roadmap. “Our goal is to capture approximately 20% of our total user base in this region,” explained Huan. This decision is based on market data: about 75% of mobile users in Mexico can be contacted via WhatsApp, and 72% prefer this app to communicate with businesses.
Huan’s interest in Mexico is fueled by patterns observed in China during WeChat’s consolidation as the primary sales channel. He identified that, even with technology, the most human and persuasive part of sales was often neglected in large-scale operations. “Many teams are still tied to tools that only record data. We offer a system that actively participates in the conversation,” he adds.
The product is aimed at small and medium-sized businesses, creators, and freelancers who operate in conversational networks. Since its launch in July 2025, the startup, with a team of 20 people based in Singapore, has already reached nearly 10,000 registered users in Latin America and the United States.
The funds raised will be used for international expansion, the development of advanced sales intelligence features, and the strengthening of the platform’s infrastructure.
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