San Francisco : Voice artificial intelligence startup Smallest.ai has raised $13 million in a Series A funding round led by Seligman Ventures, with participation from Sierra Ventures and 3one4 Capital. The latest investment takes the company’s total funding to more than $21 million.
The round also received backing from Better Capital, Upsparks Capital, Schema Ventures, Tiny VC, DeVC, Mission Street Capital and a group of angel investors.
Smallest.ai plans to use the capital to advance its real-time speech-to-speech technology and develop AI voice systems capable of conducting faster and more natural conversations. The company is focused on addressing common limitations in existing voice AI platforms, including delayed responses, robotic speech and difficulty handling complex conversations.
The startup is developing an architecture that processes speech while a person is still speaking, instead of waiting for the complete audio input before generating a response. This approach is designed to reduce latency and allow AI systems to listen, process information and respond simultaneously.
“The industry has focused on making models larger when the real challenge is architectural,” said Sudarshan Kamath, CEO of Smallest.ai. “Humans don’t wait for someone to finish speaking before they begin thinking. We listen, think, and respond simultaneously. Voice AI needs to work the same way.”
The company develops specialised speech models for real-time enterprise conversations. Its technology supports multiple languages and accents and is designed to operate in noisy environments. Smallest.ai is targeting applications across financial services, healthcare, contact centres and other industries that use voice-based customer interactions.
The company’s platform combines smaller voice-specific models with large language models. Its specialised models handle routine, real-time conversations, while complex questions can be transferred to a larger model for additional processing.
Smallest.ai currently works with customers including RingCentral and Truecaller. The startup competes in the voice AI market with companies such as ElevenLabs, Cartesia and Sarvam.
With the Series A funding, Smallest.ai plans to strengthen its speech technology and expand its enterprise voice AI offerings as organisations increasingly deploy automated agents for customer service and other conversational workflows.
