Meet Mercura: The Start-Up Making Quotation Generation Faster and More Accurate

Mercura is a dynamic start-up founded in 2024 in San Francisco, with a mission to revolutionize the way HVAC and building material distributors manage sales quotations. At its core, Mercura’s AI-powered platform automates the traditionally manual and time-consuming process of creating sales quotes, drastically reducing the time spent on back-office tasks. The platform is designed to enable sales teams to process requests for quotations in minutes instead of days, helping them focus more on driving revenue and securing new deals.

The company’s technology leverages cutting-edge AI to automate key steps in the quotation process, such as matching product inventories with requests, processing Bills of Quantities (BOQs) and Bills of Materials (BOMs), and enhancing product data management. Mercura’s solution not only helps improve efficiency but also increases sales potential by enabling distributors to respond faster to customer requests, thus positioning them ahead of the competition.

Who are the founders of Mercura?

Mercura was founded by a trio of highly experienced professionals, each bringing a unique skill set to the company. The founders are Lukas Bock, Hai Dang, and Stefan Zheng, each of whom has an impressive background in AI, technology, and business strategy.

• Lukas Bock, the CEO, has a robust background in AI engineering, having previously worked at Google X as an AI engineer. There, he implemented end-to-end machine learning pipelines that impacted millions of users. Lukas also has experience as a Data Scientist at Allianz, where he drove AI integration across 60 global entities. With a PhD dropout from the University of Cambridge, Lukas has lifelong exposure to the construction industry, having grown up in an HVAC and plumbing family. His deep understanding of the industry provides a solid foundation for Mercura's mission.
• Hai Dang, the CTO of Mercura, brings extensive expertise in AI research. He previously worked at Meta and Autodesk, where he focused on building GenAI systems that led to patented innovations and numerous first-author papers in prestigious Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) conferences. Hai also led multi-source data integrations at Celonis, working with enterprise clients on optimizing processes across millions of product and invoice queries. His academic background includes a PhD in HCI, with a focus on Human-AI collaboration, earning over 450 citations in his research.
• Stefan Zheng, the CPO, has a diverse background in business strategy and operations efficiency. Stefan’s career includes consulting for Bain, where he improved operational efficiencies for manufacturing companies, and working as a product manager for VC-backed startups. He also has experience as an early-stage investor at Cherry Ventures, conducting due diligence for multiple deals. Stefan holds a Master’s in Business and Computer Science from TU Munich and Harvard Business School, graduating in the top 2% of his class. His experience as a researcher at the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, where he developed GPT solutions with the Department of Defense, adds a valuable layer of expertise to Mercura’s leadership team.

How does Mercura's AI-powered solution work?

Mercura's AI-powered platform is designed to streamline the quoting process for HVAC and building material distributors by automating several critical tasks. One of the primary ways it does this is through its ability to automatically match product data from incoming requests, such as BOQs and BOMs, to the appropriate products in a distributor's inventory. This feature significantly reduces the manual labor traditionally involved in searching for the correct items, freeing up sales teams to focus on high-value activities like customer relationship building.

• Automated BOQ Processing: Mercura’s AI automatically processes BOQs and matches them with products in inventory. By eliminating the need for sales teams to manually search for and match products, it allows them to respond to customer requests much faster. This leads to quicker quote generation and faster turnaround times for customers.
• Instant Product Matching with AI: Mercura also handles BOMs, enabling sales teams to import complex and messy BOMs in any format and instantly match them with available inventory. This feature ensures that even if a BOM is poorly formatted or disorganized, the AI can quickly identify the right products, saving valuable time and reducing the likelihood of errors.
• Sales Reporting and Transparency: One of the significant benefits of Mercura’s platform is its ability to provide sales teams with full visibility into their business. Sales reporting features allow managers to analyze sales performance by location, employee, or product type. This helps identify successful strategies that can be replicated across the team, ultimately improving sales outcomes and team performance.
• Enhanced Product Data: Mercura enhances product catalogs by adding external data and categorizing products more effectively. This improved product data management results in more accurate product information, which can be shared with customers. The more precise and detailed the product information, the better the customer experience, which can lead to increased trust and higher conversion rates.

What problem does Mercura solve for HVAC and building material distributors?

The primary problem that Mercura addresses is the inefficiency and time-consuming nature of the quotation process in the HVAC and building material distribution industries. In these sectors, sales teams often spend a significant amount of time processing customer requests, manually searching for products, and creating quotations from scratch. This repetitive back-office work takes time away from more strategic activities, such as customer engagement and closing deals.

Mercura solves this problem by automating the quoting process, reducing the time it takes to respond to customer requests, and freeing sales teams to focus on selling. The platform also minimizes errors by ensuring that product matching is done accurately, improving overall sales efficiency and customer satisfaction.

How does Mercura help increase sales and revenue?

By automating the quoting process, Mercura helps distributors respond to customer requests more quickly, improving the chances of closing deals. Faster response times allow sales teams to engage with more potential clients and submit more quotes, ultimately increasing the likelihood of securing orders.

Additionally, the platform enhances sales efficiency by reducing administrative tasks and enabling sales representatives to spend more time building relationships with clients. By improving the sales process, Mercura helps increase sales conversion rates and boosts revenue for distributors.

What are the benefits of using Mercura’s platform for wholesalers and manufacturers?

The benefits of using Mercura’s platform for wholesalers and manufacturers are numerous:

1. Time Savings: By automating key parts of the quoting process, sales teams can save a significant amount of time, which can be redirected to more productive tasks.
2. Error Reduction: Mercura’s AI-powered product matching reduces the likelihood of errors that can occur when sales teams manually search for products.
3. Faster Response Times: By speeding up the quotation process, distributors can respond to customer requests more quickly, helping them stay ahead of competitors.
4. Increased Revenue: By streamlining the quoting process, Mercura helps distributors close more deals and win more customers, leading to higher sales and increased revenue.
5. Enhanced Data Visibility: The sales reporting and product data enhancement features provide valuable insights into business performance, helping managers make data-driven decisions that improve sales and operational efficiency.

What do clients think about Mercura?

Mercura has already garnered praise from leading wholesalers in the HVAC sector. Michael Kania, VP of Controlling at Sanitär Heinze, an HVAC wholesaler with over 1300 employees, highlighted how Mercura has helped his company increase its sales potential. With the support of Mercura, Sanitär Heinze has been able to automatically process many more BOQ requests in the project business, helping them win more customers and maximize their sales opportunities.

What is Mercura’s future outlook?

With a strong foundation in AI, a talented leadership team, and a product that addresses critical pain points in the HVAC and building material distribution sectors, Mercura is poised for growth. As the demand for automation and AI-powered solutions continues to rise, Mercura’s innovative approach to sales quoting positions it as a leading player in this space. The company’s continued focus on refining its product offerings and expanding its user base will likely fuel its expansion into new markets and verticals in the coming years.