anny buys Cologne AI startup HiDesk to build "agentic booking
What's the deal? Cologne-based booking platform annyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has acquired HiDeskDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a fellow Cologne AI startup, for an undisclosed sum. The deal comes less than a year after HiDesk was founded. The entire HiDesk team, including founders Florestan Peters and Jeremy Meidinger, moves to anny and stays on operationally.
What does each company do? anny, founded in 2020, sells software for internal and external booking management, letting companies make shared resources bookable. Over 1,500 customers use it, including coworking spaces, event and education providers, universities, libraries, and public institutions. HiDesk builds an AI assistant for small and medium-sized firms that answers calls and messages and triggers next steps, from call routing to appointment booking.
What's the endgame? The two firms want AI to handle the entire process behind customer requests, not just answer them. HiDesk contributes agentic omni-channel communication; anny brings the booking system and the business logic behind it. They call the combined approach "Agentic Booking Management."
How it works: If a customer asks for a free slot, the AI can access the booking system directly, check availability, prices, and stored rules, and complete the booking. Changes and cancellations work the same way.
The team: Peters and Meidinger join anny alongside their staff. "The first wave of AI learned to talk. The second is learning to work," Peters said. He argued that small firms now get automation that "previously required a dedicated IT department."
Why now? Both companies are profitable and have grown without venture capital — anny since 2020, HiDesk within its first year. HiDesk already serves more than 250 customers and partners and is growing around 20% per month.
The infrastructure play: With the merger, anny and HiDesk plan to run core parts of their AI themselves and cut dependence on single external providers. The team is already training small models for voice dialogue and running them on its own infrastructure in Europe, with more specialised models to follow.
The signal: "We bring together two companies that are economically independent and technologically autonomous," said Lucian Holtwiesche, chief executive officer and co-founder of anny. The deal reflects a shift from AI that merely talks to customers toward AI that executes operational workflows — and a bet on keeping that capability in-house and in Europe.
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Image credit: Generated with Gemini
