The promise is a familiar one: use your own data to automatically find more customers. The reality, for most B2B sales teams, is a sprawling stack of point tools and a lot of manual stitching. OpenWay AI, a Palo Alto-based startup founded last year, is making a bet that the next layer of growth automation won't just be another chatbot or analytics dashboard. It wants to be the system that learns from every customer interaction, remembers the context, and then acts on it, updating messaging and guiding leads from first website visit to closed deal. It's a bet on institutional memory as a competitive advantage, and the early signal is a single, specific number: one customer reported a 32% increase in qualified leads within two months of using the product [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF].
For founder and CEO Anna Belova, this is a second act built on the scale of her first. Her previous company, DEVAR, reached a global consumer audience with augmented reality books and a no-code creation platform. The numbers from that venture are the kind that get a founder in the door with enterprise buyers: 15 million books sold across 75 countries, a platform used by 250,000 creators and over 200 universities, and partnerships with brands like Google, Hasbro, and McDonald's [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF]. That track record of scaling a complex, cross-border tech business is now being applied to a very different problem. The pivot from consumer AR to B2B AI growth execution is a sharp one, but it follows a pattern of leveraging technology to create engagement at scale.
The wedge: business memory and autonomous action
OpenWay AI describes its product as an "AI Growth Hacker" [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF]. In practice, the company is focusing on businesses that already have an operation, customers, and revenue, but face a defined growth challenge [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF]. The initial wedge appears to be building a persistent, trusted memory of a company's customer interactions and business context. The system is designed to learn from those interactions, identify common objections, and then autonomously update website messaging or guide the customer journey [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF]. In a January 2026 interview, Belova described developing autonomous agents intended to manage the entire customer lifecycle [TechRound, January 2026].
The goal is to move beyond reactive analytics to a system that executes. It's a vision of continuous optimization, where the AI doesn't just report that a lead source is underperforming but can test new messaging against it and implement the winner. The 32% lead lift claim, while from a single unnamed customer, points to the potential payoff of that closed-loop approach. The product is positioned not as a tool for startups finding product-market fit, but for scaling companies that need to systematize and accelerate growth that is already happening.
A founder built for global scale
The team narrative for a pre-seed company is often about potential. In OpenWay AI's case, the founder's background provides a unusually concrete foundation. Belova is a serial entrepreneur and a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree from her work with DEVAR [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF]. The scale of that business,project revenue reaching $12 million in the first half of 2019 alone,demonstrates an ability to navigate partnerships, localization, and complex distribution [LinkedIn].
While the full OpenWay AI team is not publicly detailed, one source notes it includes pioneers from Google, ex-McKinsey consultants, and three PhDs [David Pavlovski - Kiimo | LinkedIn]. This blend of big-tech engineering, strategic consulting, and deep technical research suggests a team built to tackle the dual challenges of sophisticated AI and enterprise sales. Belova's own transition from immersive tech to AI entrepreneurship is framed as a natural evolution, with her Forbes Business Council profile listing her as an expert in both AR and generative AI [Forbes Business Council].
| Role | Name | Key Background |
|---|---|---|
| Founder & CEO | Anna Belova | Serial founder; previously founded DEVAR (AR books/platform); Forbes 30 Under 30; partnerships with Google, Hasbro, McDonald's. |
| Team (reported) | Not specified | Includes alumni from Google, ex-McKinsey, and three PhDs [David Pavlovski - Kiimo |
The path to enterprise credibility
For any new entrant in the crowded sales and marketing tech stack, the path to credibility runs through proven ROI and strategic partnerships. OpenWay AI's early positioning is deliberate. It is targeting businesses with existing revenue and a growth problem, a cohort that typically has a budget owner,often a Head of Growth, CMO, or sales operations lead,and a procurement process [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF]. The unnamed "large public company" referenced in company materials represents the ideal early validation target [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF].
However, traction beyond a single testimonial is not publicly visible. The company has not disclosed any institutional funding rounds, named customers, or formal partnerships. Its website and founder interviews articulate the vision, but the proof points required for a six- or seven-figure enterprise sale are still in formation. The next twelve months will be critical for moving from conceptual prototype to a product with documented deployments. Key milestones to watch include a disclosed seed round to fund hiring and R&D, the naming of a first flagship customer, and the publication of more detailed case studies that break down the mechanics of the 32% lead improvement.
Navigating a crowded and capable field
The ambition to automate the growth stack puts OpenWay AI in a space with well-funded incumbents and hungry new entrants. The realistic competitive set isn't a single company, but layers of the existing stack that would need to be displaced or integrated.
- Marketing Automation Suites. Tools like HubSpot and Marketo own the marketing automation layer. OpenWay AI's angle would be its deeper, agent-based autonomy and focus on continuous learning from the full customer lifecycle, not just email campaigns.
- Sales Engagement Platforms. Outreach and Salesloft automate sales sequences. Competition here would hinge on OpenWay AI's ability to not just execute sequences but to dynamically rewrite them based on real-time interaction data and business context.
- AI-Powered CRMs. Salesforce with its Einstein AI and newer players like People.ai are embedding intelligence into the system of record. OpenWay AI's bet is that a specialized, execution-focused layer built from the ground up for autonomous growth can outperform generalized AI features bolted onto legacy CRM architecture.
- Vertical Growth Tools. A host of point solutions target lead generation, website personalization, or chat. The integrated, full-lifecycle approach is the main differentiator, but it also requires displacing multiple best-of-breed tools that teams are already using.
The ideal customer profile is clear: a B2B company with between $10 million and $100 million in revenue, a sales and marketing team that has outgrown manual processes, and a leadership team frustrated by the gap between their rich customer data and their ability to act on it systematically. They have the budget for a platform play and the operational complexity to justify an AI system that learns over time. For them, the bet on OpenWay AI is a bet on turning their accumulated customer history into a perpetually optimizing growth engine, rather than a static archive.
Sources
- [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF] OpenWay AI - AI Growth Hacker
- [TechRound, January 2026] A Chat with Anna Belova, Founder & CEO of OpenWay.AI and DEVAR | https://techround.co.uk/interviews/a-chat-with-anna-belova-founder-ceo-of-openway-ai-and-devar/
- [LinkedIn] Anna Belova - DEVAR project revenue
- [David Pavlovski - Kiimo | LinkedIn] Post on OpenWay AI team composition
- [Forbes Business Council] Anna Belova | CEO & Founder - DEVAR | Forbes Business Council
- [iHeart, May 2026] Leveraging AI to Grow Your Business with Anna Belova | https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-tech-startup-network-podca-300872060/episode/leveraging-ai-to-grow-your-business-309609287/
- [PR.com, December 2019] Anna Belova featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 list