Othello parent Cicero discloses $6.85 million round from 35 investors

Why it matters

Othello is using a broad 35-investor round to fund AI that acts inside revenue-generating conversations, following Zelman's pivot from celebrity avatars to enterprise sales software.

Cicero, Inc., the legal entity behind AI sales-coaching platform Othello, disclosed a $6.85 million equity round from 35 investors in a Form D filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 3rd. The filing identifies Jared Zelman as Cicero's chief executive, executive officer and director. (sec.gov)

The financing backs Zelman's second product direction under the Cicero name. Cicero first appeared publicly in 2024 as a consumer-facing avatar service that generated AI versions of public figures. Othello now sells live guidance to revenue organizations, placing prompts, product information and sales-process instructions on a representative's screen during customer calls. Cicero's privacy policy confirms that Cicero does business as Othello. (othello.ai)

That change is the core of the financing story. Zelman moved from an attention-driven AI product built around famous personalities to enterprise software embedded in conversations tied directly to revenue. Othello is betting that sales leaders will pay for an AI system that intervenes while a deal is unfolding, when a missed question or weak answer can alter the outcome.

A 35-investor round with few disclosed terms

Cicero reported that the entire $6.85 million offering had been sold. The first sale occurred on July 16th, and Zelman signed the filing on July 31st. Cicero used the Rule 506(b) exemption and listed no non-accredited investors, sales commissions or finder fees. The minimum investment accepted was $4,999. (sec.gov)

The 35-person investor count makes this a widely distributed round for a young software vendor. A simple division of the proceeds produces an average of about $196,000 per investor, though the filing gives no indication that the checks were evenly sized. The Form D does not identify a lead investor, individual participants, the share class or Cicero's valuation. It also declines to disclose revenue.

Zelman has separately named Craig Jelinek and Bill Amelio as Othello backers. Jelinek, Costco's former chief executive, is also listed as a senior adviser on Othello's About page. The Form D does not establish whether either executive participated in this particular offering. (othello.ai)

The investor network reflects Zelman's own approach to company-building. In an Entrepreneur essay, he described cold-emailing senior executives and public figures he admired, beginning with carefully researched messages asking for short conversations. Zelman said some of those relationships later turned into investments, mentorships and customer connections. (entrepreneur.com)

Zelman, who describes himself as a 24-year-old New York City native, wrote that he was a USC senior when he contacted Harvard professor Steven Pinker. In that message, Zelman said he had built a SaaS operation to 30 employees while in high school and sold it during college. The name of that earlier operation and the terms of the sale were not included in his account. (jaredzelman.com)

From celebrity avatars to live sales calls

The original Cicero product trained interactive avatars on the writings and recorded appearances of recognizable people. Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb wrote in August 2024 that Cicero had produced a replica based on his public appearances, with plans for voice calls, text conversations, debates and group interactions. (avi-loeb.medium.com)

Othello applies a related idea to a narrower commercial problem: assembling context fast enough to influence a live conversation. Othello says its software prepares representatives before meetings, listens and transcribes during calls, suggests questions or responses, surfaces competitive positioning and records follow-up work afterward. The product runs on the seller's desktop and can operate without appearing as another participant in the call. (othello.ai)

Zelman's founder note says he created Othello to help sellers say the right things during calls, describing the product as the result of a long-running interest in sales. That framing also explains Othello's positioning against conversation-intelligence systems such as Gong and Chorus. Othello argues that established tools concentrate on analyzing calls after they happen, while its own software focuses on intervention during the conversation. That distinction comes from Othello's marketing and does not mean the categories are mutually exclusive; Othello itself says the products can be used together. (othello.ai)

Othello also publicly identifies Raphael Assor as co-founder and chief technology officer. According to an Othello profile, Assor previously worked as an engineer at Adaptive Shield and Explorium and commanded an Israel Defense Forces unit. Othello credits Assor with choosing to build a purpose-built model for low-latency coaching instead of placing a thin interface around an outside model. (linkedin.com)

The round buys a position inside the conversation

Sales software has accumulated around the edges of customer calls: scheduling before the meeting, transcription during it, analytics afterward and CRM updates once it ends. Othello is trying to occupy the most technically demanding part of that sequence. A useful live coach has to interpret speech with low latency, retrieve the right internal information and produce a response before the conversation moves on.

That creates a clear product test for the new capital. Othello must make its prompts accurate and timely enough that experienced sellers keep the software open, while handling consent, recording and data-retention requirements across different customers. Othello says it can function without storing audio, transcripts or personally identifiable information in environments where recording is restricted. That is an Othello claim, but it addresses a practical barrier to deploying listening software across regulated sales organizations. (othello.ai)

Cicero's filing supplies no budget or hiring plan for the proceeds. Othello lists offices in New York and Tel Aviv, matching the backgrounds of its two founders and the engineering demands of its product. The $6.85 million round gives Zelman and Assor room to pursue the live-call thesis after abandoning Cicero's original consumer framing. The next measure is whether Othello can turn real-time assistance into a repeatable enterprise deployment rather than another screen competing for a seller's attention. (othello.ai)