Francis Brero, Sam Levan and Paul Cothenet: The MadKudu Founders Behind the HG Insights acquisition

Francis Brero, Sam Levan and Paul Cothenet founded MadKudu, the ai revenue intelligence platform acquired by hg insights business now serving b2b marketing, sales and revenue-operations teams. Francis Brero is Co-founder and former CEO; Sam Levan is Co-founder; Paul Cothenet is Co-founder and former CTO.

The latest material financing milestone covered here is the HG Insights acquisition, dated 2025-08. The relevant total is $27M raised before acquisition, labelled as MadKudu is now part of the unified HG Platform; acquisition terms were undisclosed. It is company-level capital or transaction value—not founder net worth.

Authentic MadKudu website evidence captured on 21 July 2026.

MadKudu founders and financing at a glance

Who is Francis Brero?

Francis Brero is Co-founder and former CEO at MadKudu. Francis Brero's role should be read in its current context: founder status is permanent, while executive responsibility can change as a company scales, lists publicly or is acquired.

Founder profile: Connect with Francis Brero on LinkedIn.

Francis Brero in HG Insights’ official leadership portrait.

In the founding team, Francis Brero contributed to the combination of product judgment, technical execution and go-to-market work behind MadKudu. The public evidence does not justify claims about private ownership, personal wealth or undisclosed internal responsibilities.

Who is Sam Levan?

Sam Levan is Co-founder at MadKudu. Sam Levan's role should be read in its current context: founder status is permanent, while executive responsibility can change as a company scales, lists publicly or is acquired.

Founder profile: Connect with Sam Levan on LinkedIn.

Sam Levan in HG Insights’ official leadership portrait.

In the founding team, Sam Levan contributed to the combination of product judgment, technical execution and go-to-market work behind MadKudu. The public evidence does not justify claims about private ownership, personal wealth or undisclosed internal responsibilities.

Who is Paul Cothenet?

Paul Cothenet is Co-founder and former CTO at MadKudu. Paul Cothenet's role should be read in its current context: founder status is permanent, while executive responsibility can change as a company scales, lists publicly or is acquired.

Founder profile: Connect with Paul Cothenet on LinkedIn.

Paul Cothenet in an attributed current leadership portrait.

In the founding team, Paul Cothenet contributed to the combination of product judgment, technical execution and go-to-market work behind MadKudu. The public evidence does not justify claims about private ownership, personal wealth or undisclosed internal responsibilities.

Why the founders built MadKudu

Brero, Levan and Cothenet met while working on customer data and analytics at AgilOne. They founded MadKudu to turn fragmented product, marketing and firmographic signals into transparent lead and account prioritization for revenue teams, then extended the platform into AI-assisted revenue workflows.

This is documented company history plus editorial assessment. It does not establish private motivations beyond what the founders and company have said publicly.

What MadKudu does

MadKudu combined a data studio, behavioral and firmographic scoring, signals, playbooks and Sales Copilot tools. HG Insights acquired the company in August 2025; the former MadKudu capabilities are now being incorporated into HG’s unified revenue growth intelligence platform.

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What makes the founder thesis distinctive?

The CSV lists only Francis Brero. Founder and acquisition accounts identify Sam Levan and Paul Cothenet as co-founders as well. The profile uses HG’s clean “formerly MadKudu” help page for current product evidence because the legacy homepage’s consent layer could not be cleared reliably.

Our assessment is that durable differentiation must show up in customer outcomes, workflow adoption, reliable data movement and lower operating cost—not only in feature count or AI branding.

MadKudu financing and transaction history

The headline uses the HG Insights acquisition because it is the clearest recent milestone in the verified record. Different instruments are not silently combined: acquisition consideration, IPO proceeds, primary funding and secondary liquidity have different meanings.

What the latest milestone was intended to change

Public statements connect the milestone to some combination of product investment, AI capability, geographic expansion, hiring, acquisitions or shareholder liquidity. Those plans are attributed intentions, not proof that each outcome occurred. Evidence should include shipped capabilities, adoption, retention, unit economics and customer results after the transaction.

Founder and company timeline

The founders' public thesis

Across the available company history, the founders argue that customer data becomes valuable when operating teams can turn it into timely, coordinated action. The exact emphasis differs by company—category creation, accessibility, data ownership, real-time infrastructure or AI-assisted execution—but the test is similar: can a customer make better decisions without adding hidden complexity?

Strengths, risks and unresolved questions

Visible strengths

• A founding thesis attached to a recurring and measurable marketing workflow.
• Product history and financing evidence available from primary sources.
• A platform broad enough to influence data, orchestration and customer communication.

Material risks

• Historical scoring models could encode incomplete data or proxy bias and required explainability.
• Combining behavioral, firmographic and CRM data increases governance and access-control obligations.
• The acquisition price and founder proceeds were not disclosed.

Questions buyers and researchers should ask

• Which founder roles are current, and which describe historical service?
• How is incremental customer or revenue impact measured against a control?
• What data, consent, model and deliverability controls constrain automated action?
• Which transaction amounts were primary capital, secondary liquidity or acquisition consideration?
• What implementation resources are required before the platform produces reliable value?

Evidence to watch over the next 12 to 18 months

Watch for independently explainable retention and expansion, transparent AI evaluation, successful migrations, product delivery tied to the announced financing purpose and current executive-role disclosures. For public companies, filings provide a stronger operating signal than promotional customer counts alone. For private companies, future financing announcements should identify transaction composition clearly.

Frequently asked questions

Who founded MadKudu?

MadKudu was founded by Francis Brero, Sam Levan and Paul Cothenet.

What does MadKudu do?

MadKudu provides ai revenue intelligence platform acquired by hg insights capabilities for b2b marketing, sales and revenue-operations teams.

What is MadKudu's latest financing milestone?

The latest milestone verified for this profile is the HG Insights acquisition, dated 2025-08.

How much funding has MadKudu raised?

The qualified figure used here is $27M raised before acquisition. Its status is MadKudu is now part of the unified HG Platform; acquisition terms were undisclosed; it should not be interpreted as founder wealth.

What should buyers verify?

Buyers should test data integration, consent controls, measurement, implementation effort, support, exportability and the limits placed on automated or AI-generated actions.

Tolu S.

Associate Director

Evidence-led product reviews and founder profiles for search, marketing, authority, and AI visibility teams.