Telli a YC alum raises pre-seed funding for its AI voice agents
Former Y Combinator startup Telli is helping companies alleviate the bottleneck that occurs when a high-volume of customers try to book appointments. Its AI voice agents handle basic operations while handing off more-complex processes to human operators.
Image Credits: Telli
Former Y Combinator startup Telli has secured $3.6 million in pre-seed funding to expand its AI voice agent technology. The round was led by Berlin’s Cherry Ventures and Y Combinator.
Key Details:
- Founders: Seb Hapte-Selassie, Philipp Baumanns, and Finn zur Mühlen
- Headquarters: Berlin
- Team Size: 6 people
- Revenue Growth: 50% month over month
- Calls Processed: Nearly 1 million
Technology & Use Cases
Telli's AI voice agents are designed to:
- Handle high-volume customer interactions
- Perform automated callbacks
- Close deals
- Book appointments
- Prequalify leads
- Make product suggestions
The company uses voice cloning technology from ElevenLabs or Cartesian AI, with voices based on hired actors. For AI models, Telli switches between OpenAI, Claude, and others to provide optimal solutions.
Market Reach
Current customers are spread across:
- Germany
- United Kingdom
- Latin America
- United States
Founder Insight
CEO Finn zur Mühlen shared that the idea originated from their experience at German unicorn Enpal, where they witnessed firsthand the challenges of scaling customer service operations.
"We saw how difficult call automation for customer acquisition is and how difficult it is to manage performance," zur Mühlen told TechCrunch. "Our AI agents actually achieve outcomes like booking appointments and prequalifying leads."
Future Plans
The funding will support further expansion as Telli continues to develop its AI voice agent technology for global customer service applications.
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About the Author
David Chen
AI Startup Analyst
Senior analyst focusing on AI startup ecosystem with 11 years of venture capital and startup analysis experience. Former member of Sequoia Capital AI investment team, now independent analyst writing AI startup and investment analysis articles for Forbes, Harvard Business Review and other publications.