How Lyra and Courtne Marland are shaping communication with AI

With businesses the world over wondering how to incorporate AI into their operations, a ground-breaking young South African entrepreneur has built a game-changing AI-based solution that improves sales teams’ efficiency and boosts their bottom line.

Courtne Marland’s Lyra platform (formerly known as Seeking Sigma) is already revolutionising existing clients’ sales process by transforming sales conversations into a digital canvas that coaches users towards more conversions – and both the entrepreneur and the platform are ready to go global.

Born and raised in the same region of South Africa as Elon Musk and Charlize Theron, Courtne has had his sights set on being a global player since he taught himself Objective-C and launched his first gaming app on the Apple store aged 13, with two more apps following shortly afterwards.

Finishing school at 17, with academic honours, Courtne moved to London, where he completed a BSc in Applied Mathematics and Economics – while launching, running, and then selling his successful marketing agency. Having done all this before he was 22, Courtne was ready for his next challenge. It was in March 2024, after founding and running a consulting business, that he drew on his experience of resolving issues in sales processes to identify the potential that rapidly-evolving AI held for eliminating much – if not all – of the stumbling blocks experienced by sales teams and their support networks.

“Humans have been communicating with each other since the dawn of time, with innovations just in the last century moving us from handwritten letters delivered by postmen on foot, to experiencing audio and video in real time, across the planet,” he says. “AI has the potential to disrupt communication all over again, but this time focusing on improving efficiency and effectiveness rather than on speed.”

Software-as-a-Service solution Lyra brings all forms of communication, including calls, texts, WhatsApps, meetings and other scheduling into a single workspace. Its ‘copilot’ listens to sales conversations taking place through the platform, and then generates a lyra in real time that contains everything a salesperson would need to move the conversation forward. Furthermore, if the conversation has closed the deal verbally, the platform sends a customised contract through to the client, along with a personalised questions and answers, relevant case studies, and more. The autopilot also assesses call content and other non-verbal signals during the call, and produces the coaching content that historically less successful salespeople need to reach the closing rates of their high-achieving colleagues.

Lyra connects to a business’s full technology stack, with its AI able to use data from conversations intentionally shared across the business to update information across all tools, in real time, removing the need for human involvement. Launched in March 2024, Lyra went live in late September that year, with version 3 expected to roll out in February 2025, and a waiting list of more than 1,000 businesses, including blue-chip clients. The platform has also received interest from Zapier, Crypto.com and Dropbox, and its revenue has grown consistently by 100% or more each month, driven by impetus from additional successful funding rounds.

“More than any other management discipline, AI will supercharge sales, and the results will follow for the companies that are first able to use it,” says Rob Hersov, South African magnate and angel investor. “For the longest time, salesmen have struggled with the tools at their disposal, Lyra and its AI copilot will offer them the superpowers they’ve always wanted and needed. Salesforce beware – this is the new era of AI-augmented sales!”

Courtne is now looking to the United States for next steps for the platform, confident that being a part of that country’s technology and start-up environment will unleash a world of possibilities for their teams.

“My previous businesses were cash flow-based, and my time in London taught me so much about start-up culture, sourcing investment, and fund-raising structures,” he says. “However, it’s clear that the US market is home to the best developer talent in the world, and that it’s there that Lyra and our team will attract the attention of investors who can see how this platform will revolutionise the entire sales environment.

“After all, every business needs some form of sales team to succeed – and Lyra will change the game for each of its clients,” he says. ”That kind of success can only be great for our clients, and it will yield great results for our investors too.

The full development and engineering teams behind Lyra are US-based now, and a funding round that included investments from Rob Hersov and YouTube influencer Iman Gadzhi has emphasized that Lyra is certain of success, if the entire team – its founders included – are in the US.

“Our focus for 2025 is expansion within the US market, as well as into the Middle East and Africa,” Courtne explains. “We’re confident that our next funding round, on the success of our version 3, will lead to explosive growth, and will make iterations into other areas of business, like recruitment and customer support, over time.”

About Lyra

SaaS platform Lyra transforms entire sales conversations into ultra-personalised hubs in seconds. Internal approvals are made easy and reps are signalled when new stakeholders have been identified. With Lyra’s AI on your team, rewrite entire libraries of sales collateral for buyers in real time and reduce cycle time with in-line buyer-seller interactions.

For more information, visit https://lyra.so/