Drachma, a startup developing custom-made artificial intelligence agents for corporate environments, has announced a $1 million pre-seed funding round. Founded by Brazilian software engineer Leonardo Felipe Nerone and based in New York, the company aims to solve one of today’s biggest innovation bottlenecks: connecting AI directly to companies’ real data, APIs, and operational workflows.
While the market is flooded with generic AI solutions, adoption rates in critical business processes continue to face severe integration hurdles. “The problem isn’t a lack of AI tools. The problem is that they aren’t connected to the real context of companies—their data, systems, and processes. Without that, it’s just an interesting demo,” Nerone states.
Drachma’s core thesis stems from its founder’s background. Originally from Guarapuava, Brazil, Nerone began coding as a self-taught teenager, worked at Brazilian fintechs, graduated from a US university on a scholarship, and specialized in data infrastructure. This technical foundation shaped the startup’s mission: to move beyond conventional chatbots and build agents that act as native layers within existing corporate IT infrastructures.
How “Context Engineering” Works
In practice, Drachma’s technology enables professionals to interact with complex data ecosystems using natural language. One of the company’s early use cases involves an AI agent integrated into data platforms like Databricks. Through this agent, both technical and non-technical users can execute advanced queries on massive volumes of structured data in a fluid, conversational manner.
The greatest challenge in enterprise AI is reliability. To prevent Large Language Model (LLM) hallucinations and ensure data security, Drachma does not build models from scratch; instead, it takes a pragmatic approach. The startup has built a proprietary integration architecture—which Nerone calls “context engineering”—layered over market-leading LLMs. This layer embeds each client’s specific business rules, strict permission controls, and internal tools.
“Context engineering is what dictates whether AI actually works inside a company or not,” the founder explains. The platform is designed to empower analysis and decision-making without removing human oversight from critical processes.
An ROI-Driven Business Model
The $1 million injection will be used to accelerate the development of this reusable infrastructure, allowing the startup to scale its bespoke solutions faster without compromising personalization.
Currently validating its business model, Drachma is breaking away from standard SaaS licensing. The company engages in customized projects where pricing is directly tied to the impact generated for the client—such as cost reduction, efficiency gains, or increased productivity. According to Nerone, the philosophy is straightforward: “Our focus is for the solution to pay for itself through real impact, not just the promise of technology.”
The startup’s strategy mirrors a macro-trend in Silicon Valley and the global enterprise tech market: the end of the “passive software” era, paving the way for systems where artificial intelligence actively orchestrates automation and connects corporate data silos to transform everyday operations.
