Last month, Sesame – a startup co-founded by one of the people behind Oculus – secured USD 250m in Series B funding. Sesame has developed a voice AI agent which it pitches as an “ever-present brilliant friend” that is lifelike enough to traverse the uncanny valley feeling which once dogged verbal interfaces. Sesame intends to embed in lightweight eyewear to provide constant companionship to users as they go about their daily business.

What made the deal stand out to us was not so much the size of the investment (significant though it is), the notable track record of its founders or even Sesame’s specific product per se, but rather how the nature of its technology was framed in evolutionary terms by lead investor Sequoia Capital.

In a statement hailing the round, Sequoia described voice-focused agents like Sesame’s as comprising the fourth “great shift” in how humans interact with computers, with the first three being the keyboard, the mouse and the touchscreen.

“Humans evolved for voice,” the firm’s statement said. “It’s our most natural and nuanced communication interface. By leaning into that, Sesame opens up a new design space – one that more closely resembles the free flowing interactive mode of verbal communication.”

This “free flowing” aspect – where the agent is able to interpret and respond to the emotional registers of the user, remember previous conversations, and execute all manner of tasks – has of course been prefigured by the likes of ChatGPT and autonomous enterprise software agents. But the mode of communication – doing all of the above by talking rather than typing – does seem to herald a fundamental transformation of how we live and work. 

So far, intelligent, empathetic, autonomous voice AI agents (as opposed to assistants like Alexa and Siri) have yet to achieve true mainstream breakthrough. The traditional barriers to adoption have included the uncanny valley effect of voices that are slightly off-human, the risk of brief reply latencies rendering conversations “unnatural”, and the logistical challenges of integrating voice agents with existing company IT infrastructures and software stacks. 

But as firms like Sesame work to overcome such barriers and make voice agents a practical tool for innumerable use cases, it seems likely the “great shift” to talking will be a key deal driver. Here are some other significant startups which have reaped investment rewards in this segment.

In August, Amsterdam startup Vox AI secured USD 8.7m in seed funding to scale its voice AI platform for the quick service restaurant (QSR) industry. Its ambition is to become the “de facto interface for every QSR location”, with its agent able to take drive-thru orders in multiple languages with a 98% accuracy rate. One aspect of the product which presumably enhanced its appeal to investors is its ease of set-up, with the platform designed to be swiftly integrated into pre-existing restaurant IT systems – a critical attribute, given the increasing complexity of hospitality tech stacks. 

Last month, San Francisco-based insurtech Liberate racked up USD 50m in a Series B round – a chunky investment which reflects the startup’s rapidly growing client base encompassing some of the leading insurance companies in the US. Liberate’s AI agent, named Nicole, can handle both inbound and outbound sales and claims calls, accurately citing policy details when necessary. The platform also continually monitors conversations between Nicole and customers so that any errors are escalated to human staff – such guardrails will be expected by investors backing AI solutions in legally sensitive sectors like insurance and healthcare.

With workforce shortages, budgetary challenges and the burden of aging populations all putting immense pressure on global healthcare systems, startups are racing to provide solutions for every possible pain point. One major issue is admin, which is the target of Assort Health, a San Francisco-based startup whose voice agent can take patient calls, schedule appointments, refill prescriptions and give test results. The company, which in September raised USD 76m in Series B funding, has designed the platform to integrate with most electronic health record systems, allowing it to draw on accurate data without requiring human intervention.

While dealing with life-and-death emergency calls is still beyond the purview of AI, the technology is being leveraged to ease the pressure on human operators. Toronto-based startup Hyper, which closed a USD 6.3m seed round in July, is a voice agent which can handle 911 calls which aren’t true emergencies. The proportion of such calls is a considerable burden on the system, and the Hyper platform is intended to shoulder this burden by way of an intuitive agent which can convey the empathy required in emotionally charged situations.

While customers may potentially overlook delayed or “unnatural” responses when placing fast food orders or hotel bookings with a voice agent, any uncanny valley feeling would likely prove fatal to telesales calls. In May, Berlin-based Solda AI announced USD 4m in seed funding for its sales agent platform, which it says has a mere 1% detection rate. The AI can make outbound cold calls in multiple languages, present cross-selling options, and make callbacks and other follow-ups – a holistic solution which lead investor Accel has described as a revolutionary shift for the telesales market.

Whether your company is focused on AI or any other tech strand, we’d love to talk you through the strategic and financial M&A prospects as they stand right now. You can reach out to our managing partner Dr Jan Eiben to get the ball rolling and plan your next moves.

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