Russian Startup Raises $1.3M to Scale LLM-Powered Virtual Employees—Chatbots Are Out, AI Agents Are In

Move over, basic bots—Target AI, a Russian startup building next-gen LLM-powered virtual employees, just scored ₽115 million (~$1.3M) in fresh funding to supercharge its platform

Backed by local VC heavyweights Hive and IIDF (Internet Initiatives Development Fund), the investment signals growing momentum behind AI agents that go far beyond scripted chat.

Target AI’s platform is designed to automate customer service, sales, and training, but this isn’t your average chatbot toolkit. These are true language model agents—responsive in under 600 milliseconds, noise-tolerant, and capable of multi-agent collaboration, where one digital employee can hand off a task to another without breaking flow.

The funding will fuel the development of the platform’s core tech stack and an ecosystem for building out enterprise-grade virtual staff—agents that don’t just answer questions but replace full operational workflows at scale.

According to company estimates, the Russian AI-driven automation market for sales and support hit ₽14 billion in 2024, growing at a 40% annual clip. By 2029, the LLM-powered virtual employee market alone could exceed ₽50 billion.

For businesses, it’s not just about cost-cutting—it’s about speed and scale. Target AI claims its agents reduce deployment times by a factor of ten compared to legacy solutions.

The message is clear: in the race to intelligent automation, scripted bots are legacy tech, and LLM agents are the new workforce.