Voice AI technology startup Deepgram has secured $130 million in a Series C funding round, achieving a valuation of $1.3 billion as it aims to expand internationally, launch new models, and pursue acquisitions.
The funding round was spearheaded by AVP, an investment firm that targets tech startups across North America and Europe, with participation from new investors, including Alumni Ventures, Princeville Capital, and Citi Ventures, according to the company.
This investment positions Deepgram well to provide the next-generation Voice AI models and platform necessary to effectively support billions of live conversations with the naturalness, latency, and accuracy characteristic of human voice.
AVP looks to support Deepgram's international growth, particularly in Europe and other key markets. “Much like Stripe delivered the API platform underpinning the payments economy, we believe Deepgram is poised to deliver the API platform underpinning the emerging trillion-dollar B2B Voice AI economy,” Elizabeth de Saint-Aignan, general partner at AVP, said in a statement.
Deepgram provides various models for both text-to-speech and speech-to-text, as well as platforms and APIs that facilitate conversational speech recognition and manage interruptions with low latency. The company highlighted that over 1,300 organisations use its voice AI products and models, including meeting notetaker Granola, the voice agent startup Vapi, and Twilio.
The organisation aims to leverage its latest fundraising efforts to broaden its global presence and enhance support for multiple languages. Additionally, it is focused on serving the restaurant industry through voice AI. To achieve this, it has acquired OfOne, a Y Combinator-backed startup that developed a voice AI solution specifically for quick-service restaurants.
“From pioneering end-to-end deep learning for voice, to earning multiple patents for our research, to our commitment to pass the Audio Turing Test at scale in 2026, we’ve consistently executed on a single vision: powering a future centred on the original human interface—voice,” Scott Stephenson, CEO and co-founder of Deepgram, said in the statement.
The Audio Turing Test evaluates whether a human listener can distinguish between a human voice and an AI-generated voice.
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