Wassist raises $1.1m in pre-seed funding led by Playfair to expand WhatsApp commerce platform
Playfair led the pre-seed round for the London-based conversational commerce startup, with participation from several prominent tech angels.
≈ £825K at $1 = £0.7500 on 8 Jun 2026
London-based startup Wassist provides a no-code platform that enables brands to deploy AI-powered WhatsApp agents for customer engagement and commerce.
London-based conversational commerce startup Wassist has secured $1.1m in a pre-seed funding round led by Playfair. The capital was backed by notable angel investors including Paul Forster, Charlie Songhurst, Barney Hussey-Yeo, and participants from Balderton Capital and Dawn Capital.
The company will direct the funds towards accelerating product development and expanding its no-code platform, which allows businesses to deploy intelligent WhatsApp agents in minutes. Founded in 2025 by Josh Warwick, Wassist provides tools for brands to manage customer conversations, handle recommendations, and complete purchases directly within WhatsApp without requiring dedicated engineering teams.
From the founder
"WhatsApp is about to become the default commerce channel for businesses. OpenAI wants those conversations to happen in ChatGPT and Google wants them in Search, but customers already spend their time on WhatsApp. We built Wassist so brands can own those conversations themselves,"
Josh Warwick
Founder and CEO at Wassist
Investor perspective
"No one has built a truly agentic WhatsApp layer for small businesses. With three billion users already on the platform, the combination of WhatsApp and intelligent commerce agents represents a major shift in how businesses engage customers,"
Lucia Polverino
Investor, Playfair
Use of funds
- 01Continue product development
