DeepSales, “AI Sales Agent ‘Selly,’ A Compass for SMEs in Export Markets”.
DeepSales, “AI Sales Agent ‘Selly,’ A Compass for SMEs in Export Markets”.
Posted October. 01, 2025 15:10,
Updated October. 01, 2025 15:15
- DeepSales has developed an AI sales agent called Selly, which helps SMEs find overseas buyers and partners by automating the sales process using big data and deep learning.
- Selly analyzes company products, identifies suitable buyers, sends personalized messages in multiple languages, and arranges meetings, significantly improving sales efficiency and conversion rates.
- DeepSales continues to enhance Selly with industry-specific features, expanded language support, and compliance with global data regulations to support SMEs’ global expansion.
For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), one of the greatest challenges in export is discovering buyers and local partners. SMEs invest vast amounts of time and money trying to find overseas partners, but traditional sales approaches such as trade shows and networking often lead to low conversion rates and small-scale contracts. This is why artificial intelligence (AI) sales agents are gaining attention. They automate processes such as recommending overseas customers, sending sales messages, and arranging meetings—helping SMEs secure buyers without legwork.
Despite many SMEs attempting to enter export markets, the chances of signing contracts with buyers remain low. According to a 2024 report from the Statistics Development Institute, one in three small business owners who attempt exports fail within a year. A key reason is the difficulty of finding buyers, even when products are ready to sell.
DeepSales is a startup that provides B2B overseas sales agent services. Leveraging global export data and deep learning algorithms, it supports companies’ export activities. Its solution studies manufacturer information and predicts potential buyers with high transaction success rates, helping firms enter global markets. How has DeepSales transformed the export sales environment? We spoke with CEO Jeremy Kim to find out.
Selly: An AI Sales Agent Tirelessly Exploring Global Markets
“Starting with online marketing during my university years, I gained experience in Silicon Valley, Hong Kong, Shanghai, the U.S., and Europe. Through these experiences, I came to understand deeply why SMEs find overseas sales so difficult. The problem lies in the sales structure itself. Most SMEs seeking to expand abroad struggle from the very first step—discovering buyers. To address this, I turned to AI and big data, which ultimately led to founding DeepSales,” Kim said.
Kim observed that even SMEs with competitive products often falter at the initial stage of buyer discovery. He focused on fragmented global buyer information and believed that aggregating it and building trust in its reliability would provide companies with a competitive edge. For him, the decisive factor was transforming data into meaningful sales opportunities.
DeepSales’ answer is Selly, its AI sales agent. Selly functions as a virtual Business Development Representative (BDR) for companies’ overseas sales teams.
Selly’s process is systematic. It begins by learning the client’s products and business. It then analyzes DeepSales’ extensive proprietary database to identify the most suitable potential buyers. Next, Selly drafts and sends personalized emails in buyers’ native languages, processes initial responses, and filters prospects showing genuine interest. Finally, when meaningful business discussions are possible, Selly arranges meetings between clients and buyers, completing the sales cycle.
To support flexible operations, DeepSales has built a database of more than 80 million sales-related records, including global B2B contacts. This data was collected from about 500 public sites and commerce platforms worldwide. The company’s in-house data engineering team refines, preprocesses, and labels the data to ensure reliability.
Beyond simple buyer searches, Selly predicts deal success rates using DeepRank, DeepSales’ proprietary algorithm. DeepRank weighs factors differently depending on the industry. For example, in healthcare, it emphasizes certifications like FDA or CE, while in fashion, it values brand awareness. Such industry-specific analysis improves the accuracy of early-stage sales.
Focusing on Industry-Specific Features and Enhanced Security
What challenges lie ahead for DeepSales? According to Kim, one major goal is to advance Selly’s technology for broader industry applications. The aim is to go beyond a generic AI sales agent and create industry-specialized agents that understand the unique characteristics of sectors such as cosmetics, electronics, machinery, and software.
Another challenge is ensuring high data quality and complying with international regulations. Competing globally requires adapting to diverse standards and data protection laws. DeepSales already complies with GDPR, CCPA, and ISO 27001/27701 but must continue evolving with regulatory changes.
To address these challenges, the company is building specialized models that learn industry terminology, sales processes, and customer behavior. The goal is to provide clients with the experience of working alongside a seasoned sales expert in their field.
DeepSales is also considering dividing Selly’s functions among specialized agents—one for buyer discovery, another for drafting emails, another for managing responses and scheduling. “We envision Selly evolving into an orchestrated system of multiple specialized AI agents rather than a single entity,” Kim explained.
Language support is another focus. Selly currently supports English, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean, with plans to add French and Arabic. To expand into North America, Europe, and the Middle East, DeepSales is also strengthening local buyer networks and partnerships.
Supporting Successful Global Trade Activities with Selly
Over the past year, DeepSales has tripled its total user base and quadrupled the number of paying customers. “Compared to traditional sales methods, our clients acquired buyer information more than twice as fast and improved conversion rates by 20–30%,” Kim said. “We will keep advancing our technology to help companies achieve even better sales outcomes.”
DeepSales’ achievements have extended into investment. After securing seed funding from Bluepoint Partners, the company raised 2 billion KRW in a pre-Series A round from YES24 and Woori Technology Investment. It has also earned recognition by winning the Minister of SMEs and Startups Award, the Grand Prize at the Public Data Utilization Contest, and being selected for AWS’ Generative AI Spotlight program.
The global support program at Seoul National University of Science and Technology has also been a catalyst for DeepSales’ overseas expansion. With backing from the AWS Jungle program, DeepSales participated in global exhibitions and accessed local buyer networks, enabling direct connections with U.S. buyers. “Thanks to SeoulTech and the AWS Jungle program, we gained confidence that our technology and business model can succeed overseas,” Kim said.
“There are an estimated 200,000 overseas salespeople in Korea, each with an average annual salary of around 50 million KRW. That translates into roughly 10 trillion KRW in labor costs. I believe this market will gradually shift to AI agents. The AI agent market is already growing by more than 40% annually. DeepSales aims to become the leader in this sector.”
Kim concluded by stating that the company’s goal is to enable all businesses to conduct efficient, data-driven global trade. With Selly, SMEs will discover a new path to international expansion.
By Hyung-seok Kang (redbk@itdonga.com)
* This article was written with support from Seoul National University of Science and Technology.
- Selly analyzes company products, identifies suitable buyers, sends personalized messages in multiple languages, and arranges meetings, significantly improving sales efficiency and conversion rates.
- DeepSales continues to enhance Selly with industry-specific features, expanded language support, and compliance with global data regulations to support SMEs’ global expansion.
For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), one of the greatest challenges in export is discovering buyers and local partners. SMEs invest vast amounts of time and money trying to find overseas partners, but traditional sales approaches such as trade shows and networking often lead to low conversion rates and small-scale contracts. This is why artificial intelligence (AI) sales agents are gaining attention. They automate processes such as recommending overseas customers, sending sales messages, and arranging meetings—helping SMEs secure buyers without legwork.
Jeremy Kim, CEO of DeepSales / Source=IT dongA
Despite many SMEs attempting to enter export markets, the chances of signing contracts with buyers remain low. According to a 2024 report from the Statistics Development Institute, one in three small business owners who attempt exports fail within a year. A key reason is the difficulty of finding buyers, even when products are ready to sell.
DeepSales is a startup that provides B2B overseas sales agent services. Leveraging global export data and deep learning algorithms, it supports companies’ export activities. Its solution studies manufacturer information and predicts potential buyers with high transaction success rates, helping firms enter global markets. How has DeepSales transformed the export sales environment? We spoke with CEO Jeremy Kim to find out.
Selly: An AI Sales Agent Tirelessly Exploring Global Markets
“Starting with online marketing during my university years, I gained experience in Silicon Valley, Hong Kong, Shanghai, the U.S., and Europe. Through these experiences, I came to understand deeply why SMEs find overseas sales so difficult. The problem lies in the sales structure itself. Most SMEs seeking to expand abroad struggle from the very first step—discovering buyers. To address this, I turned to AI and big data, which ultimately led to founding DeepSales,” Kim said.
Kim observed that even SMEs with competitive products often falter at the initial stage of buyer discovery. He focused on fragmented global buyer information and believed that aggregating it and building trust in its reliability would provide companies with a competitive edge. For him, the decisive factor was transforming data into meaningful sales opportunities.
Selly acts as a member of a company’s overseas sales team / Source=DeepSales
DeepSales’ answer is Selly, its AI sales agent. Selly functions as a virtual Business Development Representative (BDR) for companies’ overseas sales teams.
Selly’s process is systematic. It begins by learning the client’s products and business. It then analyzes DeepSales’ extensive proprietary database to identify the most suitable potential buyers. Next, Selly drafts and sends personalized emails in buyers’ native languages, processes initial responses, and filters prospects showing genuine interest. Finally, when meaningful business discussions are possible, Selly arranges meetings between clients and buyers, completing the sales cycle.
To support flexible operations, DeepSales has built a database of more than 80 million sales-related records, including global B2B contacts. This data was collected from about 500 public sites and commerce platforms worldwide. The company’s in-house data engineering team refines, preprocesses, and labels the data to ensure reliability.
Beyond simple buyer searches, Selly predicts deal success rates using DeepRank, DeepSales’ proprietary algorithm. DeepRank weighs factors differently depending on the industry. For example, in healthcare, it emphasizes certifications like FDA or CE, while in fashion, it values brand awareness. Such industry-specific analysis improves the accuracy of early-stage sales.
Focusing on Industry-Specific Features and Enhanced Security
What challenges lie ahead for DeepSales? According to Kim, one major goal is to advance Selly’s technology for broader industry applications. The aim is to go beyond a generic AI sales agent and create industry-specialized agents that understand the unique characteristics of sectors such as cosmetics, electronics, machinery, and software.
Another challenge is ensuring high data quality and complying with international regulations. Competing globally requires adapting to diverse standards and data protection laws. DeepSales already complies with GDPR, CCPA, and ISO 27001/27701 but must continue evolving with regulatory changes.
DeepSales is actively developing specialized models trained on industry-specific terminology, sales cycles, and customer attributes / Source=DeepSales
To address these challenges, the company is building specialized models that learn industry terminology, sales processes, and customer behavior. The goal is to provide clients with the experience of working alongside a seasoned sales expert in their field.
DeepSales is also considering dividing Selly’s functions among specialized agents—one for buyer discovery, another for drafting emails, another for managing responses and scheduling. “We envision Selly evolving into an orchestrated system of multiple specialized AI agents rather than a single entity,” Kim explained.
Language support is another focus. Selly currently supports English, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean, with plans to add French and Arabic. To expand into North America, Europe, and the Middle East, DeepSales is also strengthening local buyer networks and partnerships.
Supporting Successful Global Trade Activities with Selly
Over the past year, DeepSales has tripled its total user base and quadrupled the number of paying customers. “Compared to traditional sales methods, our clients acquired buyer information more than twice as fast and improved conversion rates by 20–30%,” Kim said. “We will keep advancing our technology to help companies achieve even better sales outcomes.”
DeepSales’ achievements have extended into investment. After securing seed funding from Bluepoint Partners, the company raised 2 billion KRW in a pre-Series A round from YES24 and Woori Technology Investment. It has also earned recognition by winning the Minister of SMEs and Startups Award, the Grand Prize at the Public Data Utilization Contest, and being selected for AWS’ Generative AI Spotlight program.
The global support program at Seoul National University of Science and Technology has also been a catalyst for DeepSales’ overseas expansion. With backing from the AWS Jungle program, DeepSales participated in global exhibitions and accessed local buyer networks, enabling direct connections with U.S. buyers. “Thanks to SeoulTech and the AWS Jungle program, we gained confidence that our technology and business model can succeed overseas,” Kim said.
“There are an estimated 200,000 overseas salespeople in Korea, each with an average annual salary of around 50 million KRW. That translates into roughly 10 trillion KRW in labor costs. I believe this market will gradually shift to AI agents. The AI agent market is already growing by more than 40% annually. DeepSales aims to become the leader in this sector.”
Kim concluded by stating that the company’s goal is to enable all businesses to conduct efficient, data-driven global trade. With Selly, SMEs will discover a new path to international expansion.
By Hyung-seok Kang (redbk@itdonga.com)
* This article was written with support from Seoul National University of Science and Technology.
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