Smallest.ai, a fast-growing startup in enterprise voice AI, has raised $8M in an oversubscribed seed round, a clear sign of overwhelming confidence in its bold vision. The round was led by Sierra Ventures and included participation from 3one4 Capital, Better Capital, Upsparks Capital, Schema Ventures, Tiny VC, DeVC, Peercheque, and leading angel investors Shyamal Hitesh Anadkat, Mission Street Capital, Boris Wertz, and Raveen Sastry. The funding will accelerate Smallest.ai’s mission to develop human-like AI voice agents for high-volume enterprise operations.
Lightning-Fast AI: Redefining How Machines Speak
Founded in 2023, Smallest.ai was started by Sudarshan Kamath and Akshat Mandloi who have quickly become leaders in enterprise-grade voice AI products. Both founders previously worked at Bosch where they gained relevant engineering and technology experience before launching their ambitious journey. The San Francisco based startup has significant operating presence in India which enables it to access a global market through talented local contributors.
At the center of Smallest.ai’s technology is the Lightning V2 model, which is the fastest multilingual text-to-speech (TTS) engine in the world. Lightning V2 can create 10 seconds of high-quality speech in 100 milliseconds, thanks to a new architecture that allows token processing in parallel. Electron v2 is also available to produce a time-to-first-token (TTFT) of 53 milliseconds while producing extraordinarily high audio quality with only 4 billion parameters, as opposed to entering the 24 billion neural net model size typically expected to achieve that audio quality standard. These technologies enables real-time human voice interactions for enterprises in banking, insurance, healthcare, real estate and more.
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Funding to Accelerate Growth and Innovation
The $8 million funding will be used for research and development, building up training datasets and building the needed infrastructure to scale Smallest.ai’s platform internationally. The company plans to create AI agents that are fast and accurate, and can even pass the Turing test, where one could not distinguish between talking to a human or an agent during a conversation.
Investor enthusiasm for the round underscores strong confidence in Smallest.ai’s vision, technology, and ability to deliver enterprise-ready AI solutions that combine speed, accuracy, and reliability.
A Research-First Approach to AI
CEO Sudarshan Kamath emphasized the company’s bold mission: “We are transforming voice AI from the ground up, pushing agents to pass the Turing test in the coming years.” Kamath explained that Smallest.ai operates as a research-first organization, tackling problems from first principles and exploring areas where few companies venture. This philosophy drives everything from model architecture to real-world deployment, setting Smallest.ai apart in the AI landscape.
Enterprise-Ready, Multilingual, and Compliant
Smallest.ai provides a specialized voice AI platform designed for large organizations. The AI agents provide human-like clarity with unprecedented low latency while managing high call volumes in customer support, sales, onboarding, and collections. The platform is available in 16 or more languages and already serves top banks, insurers, and tech platforms across the US, India, and MENA.
Security and compliance are at the heart of the concept. The organization endorses on-premise deployment specifically for regulated sectors such as BFSI, healthcare, and real estate, allowing enterprises to successfully implement AI technology at scale and under data privacy constraints.
Human-Like AI at Scale
Smallest.ai has excellent funding, groundbreaking tech, and visionary leadership, which puts small.ai in a position to drive the next wave of enterprise voice AI innovation. The Company plans to scale the platform, improve model performance, and expand into new markets globally. With the increasing interest from businesses in customer interactions that are automated and intelligent, Smallest.ai is well-positioned to make human-like AI agents the norm for enterprises around the world.
Smallest.ai is now pioneering the voice AI revolution that brings together speed, intelligence, and scalability to redefine communication for enterprises. The company has a bold vision and great investor support for a future where AI voice agents are delivering human performance in customer experience across industries.
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