The use of voice AI in sales, marketing, customer support, and consumer applications has grown in recent years. As a result, model providers have increased business, along with investor interest. On the back of this demand, Deepgram today said it has raised $130 million in a Series C round led by AVP at a valuation of $1.3 billion.
The round also saw existing investors such as Alkeon, In-Q-Tel, Madrona, Tiger, Wing, and Y Combinator put up more money. In addition, new investors like Alumni Ventures, Columbia University, Princeville Capital, Twilio, and SAP joined the round. The company has raised more than $215 million in funding to date.
Startup growth continues to be a sizable funding trend in last year’s AI voice, including Seasame $250 million Series B, ElevenLab $180 million Series Cand Gradium’s $70 million seed round.
Elizabeth de Saint-Aignan, a partner at AVP, told TechCrunch that when the fund talks to companies about how to use AI, the voice often comes up, and they start looking for companies that work in this area.
“In 2024, when we talk to companies about how to think about using AI in business, we start to hear about using voice AI in processes like contact centers and sales development. When we talk more, we know a lot of voice AI technology supported by Deepgram, and this is what led us to them (Deepgram),” said Saint-Aignan.
He notes that voice AI can help make customer interactions with companies more enjoyable while reducing costs for companies, and that Deepgram could be at the center.
Deepgram has many models associated with it text-to-speech and speech-to-text, along with a platform and API for conversational speech recognition and noise handling with low latency. He notes that more than 1,300 organizations use voice AI products and models, including meeting notetaker Granola, voice agent startup Vapi, and Twilio.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco
|
13-15 October 2026
The company’s CEO, Scott Stephenson, said the company did not need fundraising and was cash-flow positive last year.
“In the past year, the voice of AI has become mainstream, and there is more potential to attract. We see that we can make investments faster in order to accelerate growth. And that’s why we felt it could be a good time to raise,” he said.
“We were not out looking for raising, though. We have many people come to us. We want strategic investors who know the sound of AI and technical intricacies and have relationships with building companies using technology.
The company wants to use the new fundraising to expand its global footprint and support more languages. It also focuses on catering to restaurants through voice AI. To that end, it has acquired Ofone powered by Y-Combinator, which creates voice AI-powered solutions for quick service restaurants. The startup claims to have more than 93% accuracy in receiving orders. Voice AI has challenges in the restaurant space. Last year, Taco Bell cancel the voice AI experiment after someone ordered 18,000 cups of water.
“I am excited about this (food ordering driven by AI voice) because ordering food can be the first positive interaction of more than 300 million Americans with voice AI. There have been many sour interactions with voice AI in the last 20 years, where many assistants have come out, and people feel that it does not provide a magical experience. But if you can order food using technology that is ready,” said Stephen.
There seems to be investor interest in the sector, as news of OfOne’s acquisition comes after Presto, which serves brands like Carl’s Jr. $10 million in new funding.
the analysts report Peg the voice market to grow at over 30% year-over-year and become a $14-$20 billion market in 2030. With this growth rate, API models and providers will appear as multibillion-dollar companies by becoming a core component for enterprises and startups developing voice solutions.