Chicago's Elanor Labs raises $1.1M to score sales calls like credit scores
What's the deal? Chicago-area startup Elanor LabsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has closed an oversubscribed $1.1 million seed round for its tool that grades recorded sales conversations. Founded by Elan Yudkowsky, the Highland Park company connects to platforms like Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet to score every call rather than the handful a manager has time to review.
What's the endgame? Elanor wants to build what it calls "the credit score for sales conversations." Its RBI Score produces a single number for a rep, team, or company, decomposing into 12 behavioral skills and the exact timestamped moments behind them.
Why now? Yudkowsky argues that companies capture and store thousands of hours of call recordings but get almost nothing back. "A manager listens to maybe three calls out of a hundred," he wrote in the company's seed announcement, framing the rest as "inventory nobody counts."
How it got here: Yudkowsky used online AI tools to build a minimum viable product and land paying customers before hiring a chief technology officer. More than 100 reps now use the system daily, and the company reports six-figure annual recurring revenue — figures that come from Elanor itself. An SEC Form D filed July 24, 2026, reported $175,000 sold toward a $1 million target from two investors.
What could go wrong? The round is modest next to peers. Berlin's ZellDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → raised €500,000, Stockholm's Agaton closed a $10 million seed, and New York's OthelloDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → raised $8 million in October for live-call coaching. Elanor will need to prove its scores actually improve outcomes and stand apart from established conversation-intelligence platforms.
The signal: Elanor sits in a crowded, increasingly active niche: AI tools that turn sales conversations into coaching and revenue insights. Its bet on post-call behavioral scoring — including delivery cues, not just transcripts — reflects investor appetite for making sales coaching measurable rather than run on gut feel.
Read more: bizjournals.com
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