How an idea about trust, with the person at the center, became Keybe and BIKY.
Keybe was not born as a sales tool. It was born from a conviction: a person is not a segment, and a brand that wants to sell has to earn the trust of the people it talks to. Everything that followed, from a car marketplace in 2002 to an AI-driven commercial operating system, is the same idea getting closer to its shape.
After years of playing with code and a first product of his own in 2001, hoyquehago.com, Dani Jokka lands his first paid project: a system for buying and selling cars online, compreautos.com. He ships the MVP in two weeks and starts selling cars over the internet in Medellín, Colombia, at a time when nobody bought a car without seeing it in person. The lesson sticks: people will trust a screen if the screen treats them like people. Twenty-four years later, BIKY AUTO closes that circle in the same industry, now with an AI-driven commercial operating system.
Source: Dani JokkaAfter the fintech Pagomío (later acquired by Gluky), the streaming platform Mowies and E-Drone Group MX, Dani Jokka imagines a software built around trust: brands should understand who people are and who they are not. The first concept is B2C, an identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) that lets each person carry their own identity so their surroundings adapt to them. The inspiration is the Ship of Theseus paradox: a person changes permanently and is not a niche frozen the way marketing had categorized them. The name says it: Key Be, the key of people. A key that belongs to each person, not to the brand; the key that opens who someone is, and the key to simply be. Brands do not hold it: people lend it, and that trust is what the whole system is built on.
Source: Dani JokkaOn January 16, 2020, between Medellín and New York, the idea becomes a company. Dani Jokka joins forces with Caleb Ramos, who was working in hospitality at Tao Group, one of the most important groups in the world and knew first hand what it means to serve a customer well. The first module is a CDP (Customer Data Platform): one place to unify everything a brand knows about each person, the IDaaS idea seen from the company's side. Keybe starts in entertainment and hospitality, and two months later the pandemic empties every venue. In lockdown the team builds Smart Chat, an omnichannel conversation tool connected to the CDP, so brands can keep selling remotely on WhatsApp, Instagram and web chat; clients such as Pintuco and Autolarte are among the first to use it. In the dealership, the thesis proves itself: a lead that is answered fast, by name and with context, buys.
Source: El Colombiano2021 is a year of exponential growth. Brands that discovered during the pandemic that they could sell through chat do not want to go back, and Keybe adds customers in very different sectors: fashion, consumer goods, entertainment and cars. It is also the year of the search for product market fit: the team tests, listens and adjusts to understand in which industry and for which problem the product becomes indispensable. Growing this fast has a cost. Expansion brings operational problems, every new customer demands more from the software, and the platform needs investment to scale with the same quality. That year David Zambrano joins as Tech Lead, to start building the technical foundation the platform needs, and Juan Diego Santana joins as Creative Director, to give the brand a voice of its own. The founders make the call: raise capital to build a technical foundation that can carry what comes next.
Source: Bloomberg LíneaTwo years in, Forbes Colombia profiles Keybe as the Medellín startup that helps companies sell more through personalized messaging, conversational channels, a CRM and customer data, using big data, deep learning and artificial intelligence to understand people. Mercedes-Benz, J Balvin, Chevrolet, the Inter-American Development Bank, Postobón and Cueros Vélez are already clients. Founders and executives of Rappi, La Haus, Argos, Celsia, Nutresa, Leonisa and Auteco invest personally, as Bloomberg Línea reports, and Keybe opens Mexico and the United States. The founders sum it up in three words: it is a matter of empathy.
Source: Forbes ColombiaKeybe is one of ten startups selected for Endeavor Miami's ScaleUp cohort and makes Miami its base in the United States. Forbes Centroamérica later cites it among the 30 most outstanding companies in Colombia that year.
Source: Refresh MiamiThe Miami bet does not work. Opening the United States burns more cash and time than the company has, and Keybe comes close to bankruptcy. It is the hardest moment in its history, and also the one that defines it: instead of opening more fronts, it decides to focus on one. The team goes from about 120 people to 40: a painful reduction that leaves a smaller, more cohesive and far more powerful group, where every person understands the product, the customer and what is at stake. In 2024 Dani Jokka moves to Mexico with his family and the company goes all in on the automotive sector, the industry where the thesis had already been proven and where a lead answered in time is worth a car. There the person at the center finally has someone on the other side of the conversation: Keybe launches BIKY (Better Intelligence, Kinder You), an AI salesperson who answers in seconds, qualifies, schedules and sells 24/7 with emotional intelligence, and hands the closing to the human team. Forbes Centroamérica names Keybe.ai one of the 10 promising AI startups growing in Latin America, describing it as a generative AI platform for brands to talk with their customers; Forbes Colombia includes it in the 100 startups to watch in Colombia, under AI Sales, CDP and Deep Learning.
Source: Forbes CentroaméricaKeybe joins the ScaleUp Program of Endeavor Colombia, the network's program for high-growth companies, with closed sessions with investors such as Kaszek Ventures. Endeavor and Ruta N then select it for the first generation of Medellín Next, 25 companies with international projection. Forbes Colombia repeats Keybe in its 100 startups to watch and Forbes Centroamérica lists it among the 20 AI companies in Latin America to follow in 2026, describing BIKY as an AI salesperson with the promise of almost human warmth and naturalness. That year Guillermo Prieto joins as CFO and investing partner, bringing great value to the opening of the product in Mexico. David Zambrano, who joined in 2021 as Tech Lead and became VP of Engineering, is named CTO and consolidates a world-class product in technology and software processes. There, Grupo Tec de Monterrey becomes BYD's leading success case selling with BIKY.
Source: Forbes CentroaméricaBYD México adopts BIKY.ai across more than 100 dealerships, with plans to extend it to other markets: the first automotive brand in Mexico to adopt this kind of solution at corporate level. Forbes Mexico, TV Azteca, Excélsior, El Colombiano and El Carro Colombiano cover the deal. BIKY stops being an AI salesperson and becomes a complete AI driven operating system: a platform that manages the entire customer lifecycle, from the first message and the sale to after-sales service, maintenance and the next purchase. In the automotive industry it takes shape as BIKY AUTO, the commercial operating system for dealerships, and it travels in the pocket of every advisor with the BIKY AI mobile app. Keybe operates in Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Guatemala, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Saint Martin, Chile, Brazil, the United States, Spain and Ghana. The circle that opened in 2002 closes where it started: selling cars, with the person at the center.
Source: Excélsior