St. Louis software startup earns $50,000 at competition

A St. Louis-based software startup called Balto Software has earned $50,000 at the city’s Arch Grants Global Startup Competition. The citywide competition looks for scalable startups and chose the software company that recently completed a successful first round of funding earning it more than $1.2 million in investment. It’s been a good few months for Balto Software, which supplies AI-based guidance for commercial entities. “Balto gently guides agents and in the process enables them to grow and self-actualize their potential,” CEO Marc Bernstein said in a press release. “This leads to significant increases in revenue, while at the same time providing a human-centric approach that successfully energizes a company’s workforce.” The recent funding round for Balto was led by Stage Venture Partners. “Companies cannot afford even a single negative customer experience. Balto enables every agent representing your company on the phone to communicate at the level of your most experienced, productive rep,” said Stage Venture Partners’ Alex Rubalcava. Balto’s COO Chris Kontes said the recent competition victory and the lucrative funding round are vindications grow a growing company. “The universe of contact centers is a big one but it’s tight-knit,” Balto said. “Balto’s success within its growing client base is common knowledge in the industry at large, and we are currently finalizing the roadmap that will turn that word-of-mouth into a sustainable industry leader.”