Ozaru, the startup bringing corporates’ operational knowledge to WhatsApp and winner of the GES Awards and TecPrize

There’s a group of workers that corporate technology has systematically overlooked: the Oxxo cashier, the construction worker on a job site, the hotel employee, the sales associate. They don’t use computers, have monthly turnover of up to 30%, and often start work on the very day they’re hired. Ozaru decided to build for them.

The Mexican startup is developing what it calls the “Company Brain”: a platform that makes a company’s operational knowledge—pricing, policies, procedures, and manuals—available to any worker through a channel they already know: WhatsApp, where they use formats such as voice messages, images, and videos. 

The founding of Ozaru

The idea came from an observation by its founder: Guillermo Garza. Guillermo worked at companies such as Oxxo and saw the reality of frontline workers up close: massive binders of procedures that no one reads, training programs competing with the urgency of getting a new hire productive that very day, and knowledge held by just a few people.

“Everyone was building artificial intelligence for the CEO, but no one was building artificial intelligence for the worker at the Oxxo checkout. The difference is profound: a CEO knows what they want when they use AI. A frontline worker, on the other hand, doesn’t know what they don’t know.”, the founder explained. 

The pitch was so clear that it took him straight to the University of Berkeley’s accelerator (Berkeley SkyDeck) and the Silicon Valley ecosystem, where Ozaru became one of the first Latin American startups to work with large language models.

Ozaru’s bet on corporate clients in Latin America

Today, Ozaru has nearly 70,000 active users and top-tier clients such as Citrofrut and Lamosa (in several countries), with implementations taking between one and two weeks per client.

Its main product is Enterprise, designed for organizations with thousands of employees and extensive documentation. The platform not only answers questions but also autonomously identifies knowledge gaps. One of Ozaru’s key features is its highly personalized answers: the same question can receive different answers depending on whether it comes from the Mérida store or another location. 

Ozaru’s accolades: TecPrize and the Global Edtech Startup Awards 

Ozaru has a special connection to the Tecnológico de Monterrey’s Institute for the Future of Education (IFE): it took part in and won the 2 programs it entered. First IFE Launch and later TecPrize. They also represented Latin America at the Global Edtech Startup Awards (GES Awards) , whose final event was held in England in 2025.

Of TecPrize, Guillermo highlights the mentors, especially Lalo Macías and his methodology, based on the work of Alexander Osterwalder, which focuses on precisely defining who the ideal customer is—and, above all, who they aren’t. “It sounds simple, but sometimes startups want to sell to everyone because we want revenue. If you target seven niches with the same product, you can end up becoming a software factory without realizing it. It’s very hard to say no to money.”

The program also gave them visibility with major corporations such as Viva Aerobus and Manpower, as well as coverage in the trade press.

If you’re also a startup building the future of learning or training in Latin America, apply to TecPrize 2026 before 30 September 2026 here.

Ozaru’s vision and future

Ozaru has two projects in development that will shape its next stage. The first is Cintia, an AI designed for small and medium-sized businesses where knowledge is held in the owner’s head. Whenever an unanswered question comes in, Cintia will suggest an answer and ask the owner via WhatsApp whether it’s correct, then turn it into official knowledge.

The second is an integration with Google Workspace: for companies with basic Google licenses that have frontline workers but don’t have a reason to upgrade to Gemini Enterprise, Ozaru will appear directly in their Google chat. With these two moves, the goal is to reach 200,000 users by the end of 2027.

For Guillermo, the true measure of success isn’t users or contracts: it’s helping frontline workers regain the time and dignity that corporate systems have taken from them. “I want to bring back the days when the butcher knew you by name and could spend time with you, because they didn’t have to fill out 500 reports or log into three different systems.” 

The market Ozaru is building for is enormous and virtually untapped. In Mexico, at least half of the operational workforce still works with pen, paper, and the goodwill of the supervisor on duty. 

Learn more about Ozaru here:https://ozaru.io/