Vapi nabs $50M to make voice AI more human

Voice artificial intelligence startup Vapi Inc. said today it has raised $50 million in new funding to change the way people talk to computers, experience phone calls and interact with customer support. 

Vapi builds voice AI infrastructure, the middleware that connects AI models, such as OpenAI Group PBC’s GPT and Anthropic PBC’s Claude models to voice-to-text and text-to-voice engines. It allows low-delay responses with interruptability, making conversations feel natural. 

Peak XV led the Series B funding round, with participation from Y Combinator, Microsoft Corp.’s venture fund M12, Kleiner Perkins and the company’s earliest investors. This round brings the company’s total funding to $72 million. 

Voice agents, such as Siri, ChatGPT voice, and Gemini, have made their debuts in public consciousness, becoming increasingly personable. People have become used to talking to their devices, using them as personal assistants. Voice agents have also slowly made their way into phone banks, making hotel appointments, acting as a concierge for restaurant orders, checking shipments and more. 

“Most businesses have spent decades of time and effort, only to make their customer experience worse,” co-founder and Chief Executive Jordan Dearsley said. “The real unlock is building agents for your customers that feel human. Vapi gives teams the platform to deploy voice agents that actually solve problems for customers.” 

The company reported that today it supports more than 1 million developers, more than 2.7 million unique AI agents and more than 1 billion calls made. 

The platform powers voice AI for businesses that need to handle calls at scale and it can support everything from inbound customer service to outbound candidate screening, sales coaching through simulated dialogue and autonomous menu navigation.  

The company’s customers have used its service to replace call centers, automate high-volume qualification workflows and navigate complex third-party phone systems without human involvement. Vapi said it has found its strongest customer traction in financial services, healthcare, insurance, automotive and workforce management. 

“When [Amazon] Ring customers call in, they expect fast, high-quality support,” said Jason Mitura, vice president of software development at Amazon Ring. “After evaluating dozens of vendors, Vapi stood out. We went from zero to production in two weeks, and 100% of our inbound volume now runs through the Vapi.” 

The company said with this round it will focus its investment into three places: distribution, delivery and core infrastructure. By making sure that its product gets to the people it should get to, Vapi says, it will be in the right hands; that’s the distribution plan. Delivery means customers can go from “We want this” to “We are doing this.” Finally, infrastructure investments will include governance and security, providing composition and guardrails for every call. 

Photo: Vapi